.ART  DYER  op  RHODE  ISLAND 
THE  QUAKER.  MARTYR  THAT 
WAS  HANGED  m  B05TON  COMMON 


Columbia  (HnitJer^ftp 

THE  LIBRARIES 


V 


"^ 


MARY   DYER 


OF   RHODE    ISLAND 


rii 


THE  QUAKER  MARTYR 


THAT   WAS   HANGED   ON   BOSTON 
COMMON,   JUNE    1,   1660 


BY 


IKJRATIO   ROGERS 

ASSOCIATE  JUSTICE   OF  THE   SUPREME    COURT 
OF    RHODE    ISLAND 


ir><:lf^ 


PREFACE 

The  interest  awakened  by  a  paper  read 
by  me  last  fall  before  the  Rhode  Island 
Historical  Society,  of  which  I  was  then  the 
President,  has  induced  me  to  revise  the 
matter  then  used,  and  to  accept  the  offer 
of  the  publishers  of  this  volume  to  issue  it 
in  its  present  form. 

The  material  for  a  sketch  of  Mary  Dyer  is 
meagre,  and  necessarily  has  to  be  gathered, 
bit  by  bit.  from  many  soiu'ces,  the  principal 
of  which  are  George  Bishop's  Netv  England 
Judged  hy  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord.  Part  L. 
1661,  and  Part  XL.  1667.  —  both  parts,  some- 
what abbreviated,  again  printed  in  1703: 
John  Whiting's  Truth  and  Innocency  De- 
fended against  Fahhood  and  Envy,  A)id  the 
Martyrs  of  Jesus,  and  Suffere?'s  for  his  sake, 

V 


VI  PREFACE 

Vindicated,  1702;  A  Call  from  Death  to  Life, 
being  an  Account  of  the  Sufferings  of  Mat'ma- 
duke  Stephe7i8on,  William  Robinson  and  Mary 
Dyer,  in  New  England,  in  the  year  1659, 
printed  by  Friends  in  London,  1660,  a  private 
reprint  of  which  was  made  in  1865,  includ- 
ing Marmaduke  Stephenson's  A  Call  from 
Death  to  Life,  and  other  papers,  w^ith  an 
Introduction;  Joseph  Besse's  A  Collection  of 
the  Sufferings  of  the  People  called  Quakers, 
1753;  Sewel's  History  of  the  People  called 
Quakers  ;  Bowden's  History  of  the  Society  of 
Friends  m  America;  and  the  Massachusetts 
Records.  In  addition  to  these,  however, 
many  works,  too  numerous  to  mention,  have 
been  consulted  and  drawn  from;  for  the 
labor  involved  in  such  a  study  is  out  of  all 
proportion   to   the   space    occupied    by   the 

narrative. 

H.  R. 

Providence,  R.I.,  February,  1896. 


Mary  Dyer  of  Ehode  Island, 

THE   QUAKER    MARTYR    THAT    WAS    HANGED 
ON  BOSTON   COMMON,  JUNE    1,  1660. 


Among  the  most  pathetic  chapters  of 
New  England  history  are  those  that 
recount  the  sufferings  for  conscience 
sake.  Every  gradation  of  cruelty  known 
to  Puritan  persecution  was  practised 
upon  the  Quakers.  Many  of  the  victims 
of  this  religious  intolerance  were  inhab- 
itants of  Rhode  Island  visiting  neighbor- 
ing colonies,  for  the  hand  of  persecution 
could  not  reach  across  its  border;  the 
government  of  Rhode  Island,  in  1657, 
when  urged  by  the  Commissioners  of  the 


MARY  DYER 


United  Colonies  to  expel  the  Quakers 
from  its  boundaries,  writing  in  reply 
as  follows :  "  And  as  concerning  these 
quakers  (so  caled)  which  are  now 
among  us,  we  have  no  law  among  us 
whereby  to  punish  any  for  only  declar- 
ing by  words,  &c,  their  mindes  and 
understandings  concerning  the  things 
and  ways  of  God,  as  to  salvation  and 
an  eternal  condition."  ^ 

Massachusetts  Bay  was  the  most  ac- 
tive of  the  New  England  persecutors,  but 
Plymouth  Colony  and  the  colonies  along 
the  Connecticut  River  also  shared  the 
persecuting  spirit.  When  the  Quakers 
first  arrived  in  Boston  Harbor,  in  1656, 
Massachusetts  was  without  legislation 
specially  aimed  at  the  new  sect ;  but 
lack  of  legislation  did  not  stand  in  the 
way  of   intolerance,  and  then,   too,  the 

1  See  Appendix  1. 


THE   QUAKER   MARTYR  3 

General  Court  rapidly  provided  con- 
stantly increasing  punishment  for  what 
they  denominated  "the  cursed  sect  of 
Quakers,"  whom  they  denounced  in  an 
address  to  the  King,  in  1660,  as  "  open 
and  capitall  blasphemers,  open  seducers 
from  the  glorious  Trinity,  .  .  .  and  from 
the  Holy  Scriptures  as  the  rule  of  life, 
open  ennemyes  of  government  itself  as 
established  in  the  hands  of  any  but  men 
of  theire  owne  principles,  .  .  .  and  malig- 
nant and  assiduous  promoters  of  doc- 
trines directly  tending  to  subvert  both 
our  churches  and  state."  The  forms  of 
law  were  but  scantily  observed.  "  You 
are  court,  jury,  judge,  accusers,  wit- 
nesses, and  all  "  —  vsaid  Coddington.  The 
Puritan  ministers  were  particularly  for- 
ward in  the  persecution.  The  Rev.  John 
Norton,  one  of  the  pastors  of  the  Boston 
First  Church,  was  clamorous  for  the  pas- 


MARY   DYER 


sage  of  the  law  of  banishment  under 
penalty  of  death  upon  return,  and  it 
was  his  pen  that  wrote  the  so-called  vin- 
dication of  the  Massachusetts  authorities 
for  putting  Quakers  to  death  in  1659. 
The  Rev.  John  Wilson,  another  of  the 
pastors  of  the  Boston  First  Church, 
seemed  fairly  beside  himself  as  the  sad 
work  proceeded.  "  I  would  carry  fire 
in  one  hand,"  said  he,  "  and  fagots  in 
the  other,  to  burn  all  the  Quakers  in  the 
world.  .  .  .  Hang  them,"  he  cried,  "or 
else"  —  and  then  he  significantly  drew 
his  finger  across  his  throat,  suggestive 
of  cutting  it. 

The  stocks  and  the  pillory,  stripes  at 
the  whipping-post  or  at  the  tail  of  an 
ox-cart,  fines  and  imprisonment,  brand- 
ing and  mutilation,  banishment  and 
death  upon  the  gallows,  were  meted 
out    with    shocking    barbarity   to    unre- 


THE   QUAKER   MARTYR  5 

sisting  victims,  who  exhibited  a  con- 
stancy and  a  heroism  in  suffering  never 
surpassed  in  the  history  of  the  world. 
Many  were  imprisoned,  some  for  years. 
Some  were  reduced  from  comfort  to 
penury  by  tiie  fines  imposed  upon  them. 
Some  had  their  ears  cut  off,  and  the 
law  provided  for  boring  the  tongue 
through  with  a  hot  iron.  Two  were 
ordered  to  be  sold  into  slavery  to  pay 
their  fines,  and  large  numbers  were  mer- 
cilessly whipped.  Neither  age  nor  sex 
was  spared.  William  Brend,  a  man  of 
years,  was  gii^en  "  in  all  One  Hundred 
and  Seventeen  Blows  with  a  pitch'd 
Rope,  so  that  his  Flesh,"  in  the  words 
of  the  narrator,  "  was  beaten  Black,  and 
as  into  a  Gelly ;  and  under  his  Arms  the 
bruised  Flesh  and  Blood  hung  down, 
clodded  as  it  were  in  Baggs ;  and  so 
into  One  was  it  beaten  that  the  sign  of 


6  MARY   DYER 

one  particular  Blow  could  not  be  seen." 
He  was  also  starved  for  five  days,  and 
for  sixteen  hours  was  put  into  irons, 
neck  and  heels,  so  that  it  was  thought 
he  w^ould  die  —  all  of  which  so  excited 
the  populace  that  the  authorities  prom- 
ised that  the  jailer  should  be  punished, 
but  no  further  notice  was  taken  of  it. 

Christopher  Holder  of  Rhode  Island 
was  barbarously  whipped,  was  then  kept 
for  three  days  without  food  or  water, 
and  without  bed  or  straw,  and  for  nine 
weeks  was  imprisoned  without  fire  in 
the  cold  winter  season.  Afterwards  he 
was  ajDprehended  again,  was  again  cru- 
elly whipped,  his  right  ear  was  cut  oft:', 
and  other  barbarities  were  at  different 
times  practised  upon  him. 

Defenceless  women,  maidens  and  ma- 
trons, were  stripped  naked  to  the  waist, 
and,  thus  exposed   to   the   public   gaze, 


THE  QUAKER  MARTYR 


were    beaten    with   whips    of    threefold 
knotted  cord  until  the  blood  ran  down 
their   bare   backs  and    bosoms.     George 
Bishop,    the    Quaker    historian    of    the 
time,  whose  narrative  is  couched  in  the 
form  of  an  address  to  the  Massachusetts 
General   Court,  being  an  answer  to  an 
apologetic  declaration  issued  by  the  Court 
after   the   hanging   of   two    Quakers   in 
1659,  thus  relates  the  treatment   dealt 
out    to    two    Rhode    Island    women    in 
Boston.     "  Horred  Gardner  is  the  next," 
says  Bishop,  "  who  being  the  Mother  of 
many   Children,    and   an   Inhabitant   of 
Newport    in   Rhode   Island,   came   with 
her   Babe    sucking   at  her  Breast,  from 
thence  to  Weymouth  (a  Town  in  your 
Colony)  where  having  finished  what  she 
had  to  do,  and  her  Testimony  from  the 
Lord,  unto  which    the   witness   of   God 
answered  in  the  People,  she  was  hurried 


8  MARY  DYER 

by  the  baser  sort  to  Boston,  before  your 
Governour,  John  Endicot,  who  after  he 
had  entertained  her  with  much  abusive 
Language,  and  the  Girl  that  came  with 
her  to  help  bear  her  Child,  he  com- 
mitted them  both  to  Prison,  and  Ordered 
them  to  be  whipp'd  with  Ten  Lashes 
apiece,  which  was  cruelly  laid  on  their 
Naked  Bodies,  with  a  three-fold-knotted- 
Whip  of  Cords,  and  then  were  continued 
for  the  space  of  Fourteen  Days  longer 
in  Prison,  from  their  Friends,  who  could 
not  Visit  them.  The  Woman  came  a 
very  sore  Journey,  and  (according  to 
Man)  hardly  accomplishable,  through  a 
Wilderness  of  above  Sixty  Miles,  between 
Rhode  Island  and  Boston  ;  and  being 
kept  up,  after  your  Cruel  Usage  of  their 
Bodies,  might  have  died ;  but  you  had 
no  Consideration  of  this,  or  of  them,  tho' 
the  Mother  had  of   you,  who  after  the 


THE   QUAKER   MARTYR  9 

Savage,  Inhumane  and  Bloody  Execu- 
tion on  her,  of  your  Cruelty  aforesaid, 
kneeled  down,  and  Prayed  —  The  Lord 
to  Forgive  you  —  which  so  reached  upon 
a  Woman  that  stood  by,  and  wrought 
upon  her,  that  she  gave  Glory  to  God, 
and  said  —  That  surely  she  could  not  have 
done  that  thing,  if  it  had  not  been  hy  the 
Spirit  of  the  Lord.'' 

The  other  Rhode  Island  woman  was 
Catharine  Scott,  an  ancestress  of  the 
author,  and  a  sister  of  the  famous  Mrs. 
Anne  Hutchinson.  She  went  to  Boston 
to  be  near  a  young  friend  of  hers  in 
his  sufferings,  Christopher  Holder,  al- 
ready alluded  to,  who  afterwards  mar- 
ried her  daughter.  Of  her,  Bishop  thus 
writes :  "  And  Katharine  Scot^  of  the 
Town  of  Providence,  in  the  Jurisdiction 
of  Rhode-Island  (a  Mother  of  many 
Children,  one  that   had   lived  with  her 


10  MARY   DYER 

Husband,  of  an  Unblameable  Conver- 
sation, and  a  Grave,  Sober,  Ancient 
Woman,  and  of  good  Breeding,  as  to 
the  Outward,  as  Men  account)  coming 
to  see  the  Execution  of  the  said  Three, 
as  aforesaid,  whose  Ears  you  cut  off, 
and  saying  upon  their  doing  it  pri- 
vately, —  That  it  was  evident  they  ivere 
going  to  act  the  Works  of  Darkness,  or 
else  they  would  have  hrought  them  forth 
Publickly,  and  have  declared  their  Of- 
fence, that  others  may  hear  and  fear.  — 
Ye  committed  her  to  Prison,  and  gave 
her  Ten  Cruel  Stripes  with  a  three-fold- 
corded-knotted-Whip,  with  that  Cruelty 
in  the  Execution,  as  to  others,  on  the 
second  Day  of  the  eighth  Month,  1658. 
Tho'  ye  confessed,  when  ye  had  her 
before  you,  that  for  onght  ye  knew, 
she  had  heen  of  an  Unhlamedble  Conver- 
sation;    and    tho'    some    of    you    knew 


THE   QUAKER   MARTYR  11 

lior  Father,  and  called  him  Mr.  Mar- 
bery,  and  that  she  had  been  well-bred 
(as  among  Men)  and  had  so  lived,  and 
that  she  was  the  Mother  of  many  Chil- 
dren ;  yet  ye  whipp'd  her  for  all  that, 
and  moreover  told  her,  —  That  ye  loere 
likely  to  have  a  Law  to  Hang  her,  if 
she  came  thither  agahi.  To  which  she 
answered,  —  If  God  call  us,  Wo  he  to 
us,  if  ice  come  not;  And  I  question 
not,  hut  he  ivhom  ice  love,  ivill  make  us 
not  to  count  our  Lives  dear  unto  our- 
selves for  the  sake  of  his  Name.  To 
which  your  Governour,  John  Endicot, 
replied  —  And  we  shall  he  as  ready  to 
take  aioay  your  Lives,  as  ye  shall  he  to 
lay  thein  down''  ^ 

1  The  Scott  family  were  staunch  Quakers  and  very- 
friendly  with  Mary  Dyer.  One  of  the  daughters, 
Patience,  when  only  eleven  years  old,  was  imprisoned 
in  Boston  with  Mary  Dyer  when  the  latter  was  ban- 


12  MAKY   DYER 

To  thoroughly  comprehend  the  relig- 
ious situation  in  New  England  at  the 
time  of  these  persecutions,  and  the  spirit 
actuating  both  persecutors  and  victims, 
it  is  necessary  to  bear  in  mind  the 
environments  of  those  times,  and  to 
breathe  the  atmosphere,  so  to  speak, 
then  pervading  society.  The  sensuous 
splendor  and  formalism  that  character- 
ized the  worship  of  the  Romish  Church, 

and    the    extravao^ant     indulg-ences    al- 
es o 

lowed    its  members,  resulted  in  the  re- 

ished  from  ^Massachusetts.  Another  daughter,  Mary, 
who  afterwards  married  Christopher  Holder,  was  im- 
prisoned in  Boston  with  Mary  Dyer  when  the  latter 
returned  there  and  met  her  death,  ^lary  Scott  being 
allowed  to  return  home  after  having  been  admonished 
by  the  General  Court.  Still  another  daughter,  Hannah 
Scott,  married  "Walter  Clarke,  a  strong  Quaker  and  for 
a  number  of  years  Governor  of  Rhode  Island,  and  it  is 
from  her  that  the  author  is  descended.  Mrs.  Catharine 
Scott's  father  was  the  Rev.  Francis  Marbury  of  Lon- 
don, and  her  mother  was  a  sister  of  Sir  Erasmus 
Dryden,  Bai't.,  grandfather  of  John  Drydeu  the  poet. 


THE   QUAKER   MARTYR  13 

ligious  revolt  in  the  sixteenth  century 
known  as  the  Protestant  Reformation. 
The  reforming  spirit,  when  once  aw^ak- 
enecl,  is  difficult  to  hold  in  check,  and, 
as  decade  succeeded  decade,  new  re- 
formers sought  to  reform  former  refor- 
mations, until  in  a  few  score  years 
the  Lutheran  and  Anglican  Churches 
seemed  conservative  indeed,  and  a  large 
religious  party  of  heterogeneous  ele- 
ments easy  to  fall  apart,  sprang  up  in 
England  know^n  as  Puritans,  which,  as 
the  name  implied,  desired  to  purify  the 
reformed  churches.  Aught  suggestive 
of  Rome  or  Romish  faith  or  forms, 
was  an  object  of  Puritan  abomination. 
Uniformity  of  worship  among  Protes- 
tants became  impossible,  as  each  shade 
of  belief,  while  advocating  uniformity, 
insisted  that  all  should  conform  to  their 
particular   tenets,  and,  until   liberty   of 


14  MAEY  DYER 

conscience  was  established  whereby 
every  one  was  free  to  judge  and  act  for 
himself  in  matters  of  religion,  cruelty 
and  oppression  were  exercised  by  those 
of  the  ascendant  faith  towards  those 
not  in  accord  with  their  views. 

In  order  to  enjoy  greater  toleration, 
a  considerable  number  of  Puritans  re- 
moved from  England  to  Holland,  where 
they  formed  churches  of  their  own ;  but, 
in  course  of  time,  not  relishing  the 
manners  of  the  Dutch,  they  emigrated 
to  America  and  settled  at  Plymouth. 
From  time  to  time  numbers  who  found 
strict  conformity  to  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land irksome,  came  to  America,  and 
in  1630  Massachusetts  Bay  was  settled, 
the  colonies  on  the  Connecticut  River 
being  settled  a  few  years  later.  Massa- 
chusetts Bay,  though  not  the  earliest 
of   the   New   England   colonies,  became 


THE   QUAKER   MARTYR  15 

at  once  from  its  settlement  the  leading 
and  representative  Puritan  colony,  and 
to  it  reference  is  almost  exclusively 
made  in  this  volume  when  Puritan 
thought  and  social  manners  here  in 
America  are  alluded  to. 

In    Massachusetts    Bay,   Church    and 
State  were  firmly  united,  and  only  mem- 
bers  of    the   church   were   admitted   as 
freemen.     The    Puritan   ministers   were 
looked    up   to   by   the    legislators,    and 
were  called  upon  to  frame  laws.     They 
were  also   called  to  sit  in   council  and 
give  advice  in  matters  of  religion  and 
cases  of   conscience  which  came  before 
the   General  Court,  and   without   them 
the  Court  never   proceeded   to  any  act 
of  an  ecclesiastical  nature.    Religion  was 
the    absorbing    question    of    the   times. 
The    Rev.    Francis    Higginson,   in    his 
Election    Sermon    in    1663,    said:    "It 


16  MARY   DYER 

concerneth  New  England  always  to  re- 
member, that  they  are  origmally  a  plan- 
tation religious,  not  a  plantation  of 
trade.  The  profession  of  the  purity  of 
doctrine,  worship  and  discipline  is  written 
upon  her  forehead.  Let  merchants,  and 
such  as  are  increasing  cent  per  cent  re- 
member this,  that  worldly  gain  was  not 
the  end  and  design  of  the  people  of  New 
England,  but  religion."  President  Oakes 
of  Harvard  College,  in  his  Election  Ser- 
mon in  1673,  in  referring  to  Massachu- 
setts Bay,  said,  "  I  look  upon  this  as  a 
little  model  of  the  glorious  kingdom  of 
Christ  on  earth." 

The  Puritans  made  the  saving  of  souls 
a  dismal,  dreary  piece  of  business ;  for 
salvation  with  them  seemed  to  rest  on 
abject  fear  of  hell  fire  and  eternal  dam- 
nation, rather  than  on  the  atoning  love 
of   that  meek  and  gentle  Saviour  who 


THE   QUAKER   MARTYR  17 

offered  up  his  life  for  iis  on  Calvary. 
Their  sermons  extended  through  hours, 
and  their  prayers  were  exhaustingly  pro- 
tracted. People  were  fined  for  not  at- 
tending church  and  were  compelled  to 
contribute  to  the  support  of  the  minis- 
ters. Any  infraction  of  the  Sabbath  met 
with  speedy  punishment.  They  were 
solemn  in  appearance,  austere  in  manner, 
plain  in  attire,  and  grave  in  speech, 
which  was  interlarded  with  scriptural 
phrases.  The  Bible,  and  especially  the 
books  of  the  Old  Testament,  they  claimed 
as  their  guide,  and  quaint  Old  Testament 
names  were  given  to  their  children,  one 
of  Mary  Dyer's  sons  being  named  Maher- 
shallalhashbaz.  They  were  a  God-fearing 
people  and  never  forgot  that  there  were 
souls  to  be  saved,  or  rather  that  there 
were  souls  in  danger  of  being  dannied ; 
for  they  seemed  never  to  emerge  from 


18  MARY    DYEK 

the  gloom  and  shadow  of  fear  mto  the 
joyous  brightness  of  hope,  and  hence, 
by  the  standards  of  to-day,  their  lives 
were  comparatively  joyless.  As  might 
be  expected,  their  laws  were  rigorous  to 
the  last  degree.  Not  only  were  immo- 
rality and  levity,  but  even  many  of  the 
innocent  enjoyments  of  life  were  sternly 
repressed.  Especially  w^ere  improprieties 
between  the  sexes  relentlessly  punished,^ 
and  innocent  intercourse  between  them 
and  the  advances  towards  marriage  were 
regulated  by  law.  Women  w^ere  for- 
bidden to  expose  their  arms  or  necks  to 

1  To  such  an  extreme  was  this  carried,  if  the  date 
of  the  birth  of  a  young  married  couple's  first-born 
indicated  any  impropriet}''  before  marriage,  the  parents 
were  publicly  punished,  though  they  had  been  married 
for  months. 

In  the  colony  of  New  Haven  it  was  ordered  in 
1050,  "  That  no  master  of  a  familye  shall  give  inter- 
teinment  or  habitation  to  any  young  man  to  sojourne 
in  his  familye,  but  by  the  allowance  of  the  inhabitants 


THE   QUAKER    MARTYR  19 

view,  and  it  was  ordered  that  their 
sleeves  should  reach  down  to  their 
wrists,  and  their  gowns  should  be  closed 
around  their  throats.  Sumptuary  laws 
and  all  other  kinds  of  laws  regulating 
private  conduct  were  in  force.  The  use 
of  tobacco  w^as  forbidden,  and  so  was 
dancing  at  weddings.  In  1659  the 
General  Court  of  Massachusetts  Bay 
passed  the  following  law,  viz.  :  "  For 
pventing  disorders  arising  in  severall 
places  w^^in  this  jurisdicon,  by  reason  of 
some  still  observing  such  Aestivalis  as 
were  super stitiously  kept  in  other  coun- 
trys,  to  the  great  dishonour  of  God  and 
offence  of  others,  it  is  therefore  ordered 

of  the  towne  where  he  dwells,  under  the  penalty  of 
twenty  shillings  per  week.  And  it  is  allso  ordered, 
that  no  young  man  that  is  neither  married,  nor  hath 
a  servant,  nor  is  a  publique  officer,  shall  keepe  house 
by  himselfe,  without  the  consent  of  the  towne,  for  and 
under  paine  or  penalty  of  twenty  shillings  a  week." 


20  MARY  DYER 

by  this  Court  and  the  authority  thereof, 
that  whosoever  shall  be  found  observing 
any  such  day  as  Christmas  or  the  like, 
either  by  forbearing  of  labour,  feasting, 
or  any  other  way,  uppon  any  such  ac- 
counts as  aforesajd,  every  such  person 
so  offending  shall  pay  for  every  such 
offence  five  shillings  as  a  fine  to  the 
county." 

Of  course,  in  a  community  thus  con- 
stituted, any  divergence  from  the  ortho- 
dox standard  of  religious  belief  would 
not  be  tolerated ;  and  Koger  Williams 
became  the  first  victim  of  Puritan  ortho- 
doxy in  1635,  founding  the  Colony  of 
Providence  Plantations  the  next  year 
upon  a  basis  utterly  at  variance  with 
President  Oakes's  "little  model  of  the 
glorious  kingdom  of  Christ  on  earth," 
and  which,  in  the  judgment  of  the 
world,  was  a  vast  improvement  upon  it. 


THE   QUAKER   MARTYR  21 

Within  a  feAV  years  succeeding  Roger 
Williams's  banishment,  the  Rev.  John 
Wheelwright,  Mrs.  Anne  Hutchinson, 
Samuel  Gorton,  and  many  others,  were 
thrust  out  of  Massachusetts  Bay  in  rapid 
succession  under  varying  circumstances 
pf  indignity  and  cruelty.  The  Quakers 
were  the  next  class  of  religious  victims 
to  feel  the  hand  of  Puritan  persecution ; 
but,  peaceful  as  were  their  professions, 
they  were  made  of  sterner  stuff  than 
the  preceding  victims  of  Puritan  oppres- 
sion, and,  undaunted  by  either  threats  or 
sufferings,  fairly  repressed  the  persecut- 
ing spirit  by  surfeiting  it  with  more 
victims  courting  martyrdom  than  could 
be  disposed  of.  At  a  time  of  such  a 
relio:ious  awakening;  as  the  middle  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  and,  in  the  words 
of  Hildreth,  as  "one  among  many  other 
results  of   that  violent  fermentation    of 


22  MARY  DYER 

opinions  among  part  of  the  English 
Puritans,  which  Cromwell,  to  the  hor- 
ror of  the  conservative  Presbyterians, 
allowed  to  go  on  almost  unchecked," 
George  Fox  founded  the  sect  called 
Quakers  or  Friends,  Fox  beginning  his 
preaching  about  the  year  1647. 

For  the  leading  traits  of  the  Quaker 
belief  I  shall  borrow  and  abridge  from 
the  Quaker  writer  Hallowell,  in  his 
Quaker  Invasion  of  Massachusetts.  In 
common  with  the  Puritans,  the  Quakers 
believed  in  the  divinity  of  Jesus,  the 
Christian  atonement,  a  future  life  either 
in  heaven  or  hell,  and  the  inspiration 
of  the  Bible.  In  common  with  the  Puri- 
tans, they  condemned  as  idolatrous  the 
ceremonial  service  of  the  Established 
Church;  but  they  also  denied  the  efficacy 
of  ordination,  baj)tism,  formal  prayer, 
and  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper. 


THE   QUAKER  MARTYR  23 

They  sought  to  restore  the  spirituality 
and  simplicity  of  primitive  Christianity. 
Their  reliance  upon  what  they  called  the 
Inward  Light,  as  a  sufficient  guide  in 
matters  of  religion,  has  always  distin- 
guished them  from  all  other  religious 
sects.  This  Inward  Light  may  be  briefly 
explained  as  follows  :  God  is  an  indwell- 
ing Spirit,  and  humanity  is  his  holy 
temple.  His  law  is  written  upon  the 
hearts  of  all  men ;  and  obedience  to  it 
will  lead  them  into  all  truth,  so  far  as 
religious  truths  are  revealed  to  men. 
Through  the  operation  of  this  law  the 
soul  of  man  is  accessible  to  his  Creator. 
It  is  the  rule  of  life  to  which  every  one 
must  subject  himself,  and  out  of  which 
duty  is  evolved.  The  logic  of  this  car- 
dinal principle  of  Quakerism  led  straight 
to  repudiation  of  the  authority  of  an  or- 
dained ministry,  to  the  withdrawal  from 


24  MARY  DYER 

church  membership,  and  the  refusal  to 
pay  church  tithes.  Intellectual  training 
alone  cannot  fit  men  to  be  religious 
teachers.  The  Spirit  of  God  must  first 
illuminate  their  souls  and  sanctify  their 
lives.  The  Puritans  rebelled  against 
prelacy,  and  held  in  special  abhorrence 
the  forms  and  ceremonies  borrowed  from 
Rome  by  the  English  Church.  Coming 
into  power,  they  established  their  own 
church,  and  compelled  an  unwilling  peo- 
ple to  conform  to  and  support  it.  The 
Quakers  probed  deeper.  They  rebelled 
against  prelate  and  presbyter  alike. 
They  claimed  not  toleration,  but  liberty 
of  conscience  for  all  as  an  inalienable 
right ;  they  demanded  the  absolute  sepa- 
ration of  Church  and  State,  denounced 
the  clergy  as  priests  and  hirelings,  and 
in  spite  of  fiendish  persecution  refused 
to    acknowledge    their   authority   or   to 


THE   QUAKER   MARTYR  25 

contribute  so  much  as  a  farthing  to  their 
maintenance.      Silent   meditation,   inter- 
rupted only  by  a  short  prayer  or  exhor- 
tation by  one    or  more   of   them,  who, 
perchance,    were   moved   hy   the    Spirit, 
constituted  their  only  form  of  worship. 
They  substituted  simple  affirmation  for 
the  oath,  defending  the  innovation  with 
apt  and  telling  quotations  from  script- 
ure.    They   held   meetings  for  worship, 
and   were   generally   careful    to   abstain 
from    all    unnecessary    secular    employ- 
ment on  the  first  day  of  the  week,  but 
they  did  not  regard  it  as  especially  the 
'' Lord's  Day."     They  claimed  that   all 
days  are  alike  holy  in  the  sight  of  God. 
They   regarded    the    use    of   the   plural 
number  in  addressing  one  person  as   a 
species  of  flattery,  and  adopted  the  sim- 
ple  thee  and  thou  of   the  Bible.     They 
addressed    all    men    by   their   Christian 


26  MARY   DYER 

names  only,  regtarding  all  other  modes 
of  address  as  "  flattering  titles."'  They 
declared  that  it  is  not  lawful  for  Chris- 
tians to  kneel  or  prostrate  themselves  to 
any  man,  or  to  bow  the  body,  or  to 
uncover  the  head  to  men ;  that  it  is  not 
lawful  for  a  Christian  to  use  superfluities 
in  apparel,  as  are  of  no  use  save  for 
ornament  and  vanity ;  that  it  is  not 
lawful  to  use  games,  sports,  plays,  nor, 
among  other  things,  comedies,  among 
Christians,  under  the  notion  of  recrea- 
tions, which  do  not  agree  with  Christian 
silence,  gravity,  and  sobriety.  They 
considered  war  an  evil  as  opposite  and 
contrary  to  the  spirit  and  doctrine  of 
Christ  as  light  to  darkness,  and  they 
would  not  fight. 

That  injustice  may  not  be  done,  it 
should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  perse- 
cution of  the  Quakers  in  Massachusetts 


THE   QUAKER   MARTYR  27 

was  the  work  of  the  ministers  and  of 
the  higher  civil  magistrates ;  that  but  a 
portion  of  the  church  members,  and  few, 
if  any,  who  were  not,  approved  of  it ; 
that  as  only  church  members  were  free- 
men and  entitled  to  vote,  those  in  au- 
thority were  elected  by  the  church 
members  only ;  and  yet,  when  the  pen- 
alty of  death  was  sought  to  be  imposed 
upon  those  who  returned  from  the  ban- 
ishment meted  out  to  the  Quakers,  the 
utmost  difficulty  was  encountered,  and 
only  after  a  stubborn  resistance  was  the 
law  enacted  by  the  General  Court  by  a 
bare  majority  of  one.  Popular  tumults 
were  frequently  excited  by  the  treatment 
of  the  Quakers,  and,  in  the  case  of  Wil- 
liam Brend  already  alluded  to,  we  have 
seen  that  the  authorities,  in  order  to 
allay  the  popular  discontent,  had  to 
promise  to  bring  the  jailer  to  justice,  he 


28  MARY    DYER 

having  been  the  instrumentality  used  in 
perpetrating  the  cruelties.  It  was  urged 
by  those  in  favor  of  the  law  that  its 
mere  existence,  operating  in  terror  em, 
would  be  all-sufficient,  and  that  its  en- 
forcement would  never  be  necessary. 
Those  stern  old  Puritans  were  full  of 
grim  determination,  and  it  never  entered 
their  heads  that  their  Quaker  opponents 
could  be  as  doggedly  tenacious  in  uphold- 
ing their  views  as  they  were  themselves. 
Certain  it  is  that  those  Massachusetts 
lawmakers  did  not  reckon  upon  the  ex- 
istence of  a  zeal,  a  courage,  a  heroism  — 
call  it  what  you  will  —  that  would  break 
down  and  triumph  over  their  own  deter- 
mination, which  was  well-nigh  relentless. 
They  had  never  seen  a  self-sacrifice  that 
conquered  by  its  very  submissiveness,  and 
overwhelmed  persecutors  by  a  surfeit  of 
victims  offering  themselves  for  sacrifice. 


THE   QUAKER   MARTYR  29 

The  Quakers  were  absolutely  fearless. 
They  counted  their  lives  as  nothing  in 
upholding  their  views,  and  they  not  only 
did  not  avoid  martyrdom,  but  they 
studiously  courted  it;  and  therein  lay 
their  jDower  and  the  secret  of  their  final 
triumph. 


30  MAKY   DYER 


II 

Mary  Dyer  of  Rhode  Island,  in  the 
words  of  George  Bishop,  the  old  Quaker 
chronicler,  written  after  her  death,  was 
"  a  Comely  Grave  Woman,  and  of  a 
goodly  Personage,  and  one  of  a  good 
Report,  having  a  Husband  of  an  Estate, 
fearing  the  Lord,  and  a  Mother  of  Chil- 
dren." Governor  Winthrop  of  Massa- 
chusetts, a  less  friendly  writer,  refers  to 
her,  in  1638,  as  "the  wife  of  one  William 
Dyer,  a  milliner  in  the  New  Exchange, 
a  very  proper  and  fair  woman,  and  both 
of  them  notoriously  infected  with  Mrs. 
Hutchinson's  errors,  and  very  censorious 
and  troublesome,  (she  being  of  a  very 
proud  spirit,  and  much  addicted  to  revela- 
tions)."    Gerard  Croese,  a  Dutch  writer, 


THE   QUAKER   MARTYR  31 

states  that  she  was  reputed  as  a  "  person 
of  no  mean  extract  and  parentage,  of 
an  estate  pretty  plentiful,  of  a  comely 
stature  and  countenance,  of  a  piercino- 
knowledge  in  many  things,  of  a  wonder- 
ful sweet  and  pleasant  discourse,  so  fit 
for  great  affairs,  that  she  wanted  nothino- 
that  was  manly,  except  only  the  name 
and  the  sex." 

William  Dyer  and  his  wife  emigrated 
from  London  to  Boston,  in  Massachusetts 
Bay,  where  they  were  admitted  members 
of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Wilson's  church,  Decem- 
ber 13,  1635.  That  they  were  better 
educated  than  the  majority  of  people  of 
that  day,  is  apparent  from  the  character 
of  the  i)ublic  positions  William  Dyer  held 
in  Rhode  Island,  and  from  the  letters  of 
Mrs.  Dyer  that  have  come  down  to  us,^ 
and  the  fact  that  she  was  a  great  friend 

^  See  Appendix  II. 


82  MAllY  DYER 

of  the  gifted  Mrs.  Anne  Hutchinson. 
When  the  latter  was  arraigned  before  the 
elders  and  was  expelled  from  the  church, 
Mary  Dyer  rose  and  walked  by  her  side 
out  of  the  building.  The  Dyers  followed 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Wheelwright  and  Mrs. 
Hutchinson  in  the  Antinomian  move- 
mentj  and  in  March,  1637,  William 
Dyer  signed  a  remonstrance  affirming 
the  innocence  of  Mr.  Wheelwright  and 
that  the  Court  had  condemned  the  truth 
of  Christ.  In  consequence  of  this  he 
and  others  of  like  sympathies  were  dis- 
franchised and  disarmed,  "because,"  in 
the  language  of  the  order,  "  the  opin- 
ions and  revelations  of  Mr.  Wheel- 
wright and  Mrs.  Hutchinson  have 
seduced  and  led  into  dangerous  errors 
many  of  the  people  here  in  New  Eng- 
land ; "  and  early  in  the  next  year  they 
were     forced    to    leave     Massachusetts, 


THE    QFAKEIJ    MAUTYR  33 

removing  first  to  Portsmouth,  Rhode 
Island,  and  the  following  year  to  New- 
port in  the  same  State. 

Palfrey,  the  historian,  says  that  Mary 
Dyer  was  an  object  of  peculiar  abhor- 
rence in  Boston  on  account  of  an  absurd 
story  of  her  having  given  birth  to  a 
monster,  a  divine  judgment  for  her 
attachment  to  Mrs.  Hutchinson.  The 
story  in  all  its  disgusting  detail  is  given 
by  Governor  Winthrop  in  his  History 
of  Neiv  England ,  and  by  Cotton  Mather 
in  his  Magnalia  Christi  Ainericana. 

William  Dyer  was  a  person  of  conse- 
quence in  Rhode  Island.  In  1638  he 
was  elected  Clerk,  and  in  1640  Secre- 
tary of  Portsmouth  and  Newport,  hold- 
ing the  office  until  May,  1647,  and 
thereafter  for  a  year  he  was  the  Gen- 
eral Recorder  under  the  Parliamentary 
Patent.      Two   years   later   he   was   the 


34  '  MARY   DYER 

Attorney-General  of  the  Colony.  At 
different  times  he  held  various  other 
offices  and  positions  of  public  trust, 
such  as  a  Commissioner,  a  Deputy,  Gen- 
eral Solicitor,  Secretary  of  the  Coun- 
cil, etc. 

William  and  Mary  Dyer  had  six 
children,  and  among  their  numerous 
descendants  are  some  of  the  best 
known  and  most  respected  citizens  of 
Rhode  Island.^ 

^  William  and  Mary  Dyer's  descendants  include 
the  late  Benjamin  Dyer  and  Charles  Dyer,  leading 
merchants  in  Providence  in  the  early  part  of  this  cen- 
tury; the  late  Elisha  Dyer,  senior,  also  prominent 
there  in  business;  the  late  Governor  Elisha  Dyer,  who 
filled  with  honor  the  Executive  Cliair  of  the  State; 
the  late  Daniel  W.  Lyman,  to  whose  munificence 
Brown  University  is  indebted  for  the  Lyman  Gym- 
nasium ;  General  Elisha  Dyer,  until  recently  Adjutant- 
General  of  the  State ;  Mr.  James  IL  Chace,  an  exten- 
sive cotton  manufacturer  in  Providence ;  the  Hon. 
Jonathan  Chace,  formerly  a  United  States  Senator 
from  Rhode  Island  ;  and  numy  others  too  numerous 
to  mention. 


THE   QUAKER   MARTYR  35 

In  1652  William  Dyer  accompanied 
Roger  Williams  and  John  Clarke,  who 
were  sent  from  Rhode  Island  to  Eng- 
land to  obtain  a  revocation  of  the 
extraordinary  powers  granted  to  Wil- 
liam Coddington ;  and  Mrs.  Dyer 
accompanied  her  husband.  Though 
William  Dyer  returned  home  early  in 
1653,  his  wife  remained  abroad  sev- 
eral 3^ears  longer,  becoming  a  convert 
to-  Quaker  doctrines  and  a  minister  in 
that  society.  In  1657  she  landed  in 
Boston  en  route  for  her  home  in  Rhode 
Island.  The  year  before  her  coming, 
the  arrival  of  the  earliest  Quakers  in 
Boston  had  so  wrought  up  the  ministers 
and  authorities  of  Massachusetts  Bay 
that  various  repressive  measures  had 
been  adopted,  and  hence  when  Mary 
Dyer,  and  a  widow  named  Ann  Burden 
who  came  to  settle  up  her  deceased  hus- 


36  MARY   DYER 

band's  estate,  set  foot  in  Boston,  they 
were  arrested  and  cast  into  prison ;  for 
although  Mary  Dyer's  sole  business  was 
to  pass  that  way  to  Rhode  Island,  she 
was  kept  a  close  prisoner  so  that  none 
might  have  communication  with  her, 
until  her  husband,  hearing  that  she  had 
arrived  and  was  in  prison,  went  after 
her.  Then  she  was  not  released  and 
suffered  to  depart  until  he  had  bound 
himself  in  a  great  penalty  not  to  lodge 
her  in  any  town  of  Massachusetts  Bay, 
nor  to  permit  any  to  have  speech  with 
her  on  her  journey.  In  1658  she  was 
expelled  from  the  Colony  of  New  Haven 
for  preaching  Quaker  doctrines. 

As  well  might  the  Puritan  perse- 
cutors of  the  United  Colonies  have 
attempted  to  stop  the  inflowing  tide  of 
the  mighty  ocean  by  their  legal  fulmi- 
nations  as  to  curb  Quaker  zeal  by  their 


THE   QUAKER   MARTYR  37 

cruel  enactments,  so  the  victims  flocked 
on  their  way  to  the  jails,  the  whip- 
ping posts  and  the  pillories,  yea,  even 
to  the  gallows. 

In  June,  1659,  William  Robinson,  a 
merchant  of  London,  and  Marmaduke 
Stephenson,  a  countryman  of  the  east 
part  of  Yorkshire,  'were  moved  by  the 
Lord,'  in  Quaker  phrase,  to  go  from 
Ehode  Island  to  Massachusetts  to  bear 
w^itness  against  the  persecuting  spirit 
existing  there;  and  with  them  went 
Nicholas  Davis  of  Plymouth  Colony, 
and  Patience  Scott  of  Providence,  Rhode 
Island,  a  girl  of  about  eleven  years  of 
age,  and  a  daughter  of  the  Catharine 
Scott  already  referred  to.  They  were 
all  arrested  and  committed  to  prison  to 
await  the  next  meeting  of  the  Court 
of  Assistants  in  the  following  Septem- 
ber.     During   their   incarceration   Mary 


38  MARY   DYER 

Dyer  was  moved  of  the  Lord  to  go 
from  Rhode  Island  to  visit  the  pris- 
oners, and  she  too  was  arrested  and 
imprisoned.  On  September  12,  1659, 
the  Court  banished  the  four  adults  from 
Massachusetts  upon  pain  of  death,  if 
after  the  14th  of  September  they  should 
be  found  within  the  jurisdiction,  but 
Patience  Scott  was  discharged,  as,  in 
the  words  of  the  chronicler,  "  the  child, 
it  seems,  was  not  of  years,  as  to  law, 
to  deal  with  her  by  banishment."  ^ 

1  Governor  Hutchinson  in  his  History  of  Massachu- 
setts, Vol.  I.  p.  183,  says :  "  Patience  Scott,  a  girl  of 
about  eleven  years  of  age,  came  I  suppose  from  Provi- 
dence ;  her  friends  lived  there ;  and  professing  herself 
to  be  one  of  those  whom  the  world  in  scorn  calls 
quakers,  was  committed  to  prison,  and  afterwards 
brought  to  court.  The  record  stands  thus :  '■  The 
court  duly  considering  the  malice  of  satan  and  his 
instruments  by  all  means  and  ways  to  propagate  error 
and  disturb  the  truth,  and  bring  in  confusion  among 
us  —  that  satan  is  put  to  his  shifts  to  make  use  of  such 
a  child,  not  being  of  the  years  of  discretion,  nor  under- 


THE   QUAKER   MARTYR  39 

Nicholas  Davis  and  Mary  Dyer 
departed  to  their  homes  without  the 
jurisdiction  of  Massachusetts,  but  Wil- 
liam Robinson  and  Marmaduke  Ste- 
phenson, though  released  from  prison, 
determined  to  stay  within  the  jurisdic- 
tion and  try  the  bloody  law  unto  death. 
On  October  8,  within  thirty  days  of 
her  banishment,  Mary  Dyer  with  other 
Rhode  Island  Quakers  went  to  Boston 
to  visit  Christopher  Holder,  then  in 
prison,  where  she  was  again  arrested 
and  held  for  the  action  of  the  authori- 
ties. Five  days  later  William  Robinson 
and   Marmaduke    Stephenson,  who   had 

standing  the  principles  of  religion  —  judge  meet  so 
far  to  slight  her  as  a  quaker,  as  only  to  admonish  and 
instruct  her  according  to  her  capacity,  and  so  discharge 
her,  Capt.  Hutchinson  undertaking  to  send  her  home.' 
Strange  such  a  child  should  be  imprisoned !  it  would 
have  been  horrible  if  there  had  been  any  further 
severity." 


40  MARY   DYER 

been  travelling  about  spreading  their 
doctrines  through  Massachusetts  and 
Rhode  Island  since  their  release  from 
prison,  also  went  to  Boston  to  look  the 
bloody  laws  in  the  face,  in  the  words 
of  the  Quaker  chronicler ;  and  they  too 
were  arrested  and  cast  into  prison. 

The  issue  was  now  clearly  made  be- 
tween Quaker  and  Puritan.  The  Quaker 
defied  the  unjust  Puritan  laws,  and  dared 
martyrdom.  Dare  the  Puritan  authori- 
ties inflict  it  ? 

On  October  19  the  three  prisoners 
were  brought  before  Governor  Endicott 
and  the  Assistants,  and  demand  having 
been  made  of  them  —  Why  they  came 
again  into  that  jurisdiction  after  hav- 
ing been  banished  from  it  upon  pain  of 
death  if  they  returned? — they  severally 
declared  that  the  cause  of  their  coming 
was  of   the  Lord   and   in   obedience   to 


THE   QUAKER   MARTYR  41 

him.  The  next  day  they  were  again 
hrought  l)efore  the  magistrates,  when 
the  Governor  called  to  the  keeper  of  the 
prison  to  pull  off  their  hats,  which  hav- 
ing been  done,  he  addressed  them  sub- 
stantially as  follows :  "  We  have  made 
many  laws  and  endeavored  in  several 
ways  to  keep  you  from  among  us,  but 
neither  whipping  nor  imprisonment,  nor 
cutting  off  ears,  nor  banishment  upon 
pain  of  death,  will  keep  you  from 
among  us.  We  desire  not  your  death." 
Notwithstanding  which,  he  immediately 
added :  '^  Hearken  now  to  your  sentence 
of  death."  Then  he  stopped :  where- 
upon William  Robinson  desired  to  read 
to  the  magistrates  and  the  large  audi- 
ence assembled  there  a  paper  prepared 
by  him,  containing  a  declaration  of  his 
call  by  the  Lord  to  Boston  and  the  rea- 
son of  his  staying  within  the  jurisdiction 


42  MARY  DYER 

after  his  banishment.  The  Governor 
with  much  feeling  said :  "  You  shall  not 
read  it,  nor  will  the  court  hear  it  read." 
Upon  its  being  passed  to  the  Governor, 
and  read  by  him  to  himself,  he  said : 
"  William  Robinson,  you  need  not  keep 
such  an  ado  to  have  it  read,  for  ye  spake 
yesterday  more  than  is  here  written." 
To  which  Robinson  replied,  "  Nay,"  and 
desired  again  that  it  might  be  read,  that 
all  the  people  might  hear  the  cause  of 
their  coming  and  of  their  stay  there, 
and  wherefore  they  were  put  to  death. 
But  the  Governor  would  not  allow  him 
to  read  it,  and  proceeded  to  pronounce 
sentence  of  death  upon  him,  whereupon 
he  was  carried  back  to  prison.  Then 
the  Governor  addressed  Marmaduke 
Stephenson,  and,  more  partial  to  him, 
apparently,  than  to  William  Robinson, 
said,    "  If    you   have   anything   to    say, 


THE    QTAKEK    MARTYR  43 

you  may  speak/'  But  Steplienson  was 
silent,  and  spoke  not,  so  sentence  of 
death  was  pronounced  upon  him  also. 
When  the  Governor  ceased  speaking, 
however,  Stephenson  hfted  up  his  voice 
in  this  wise  :  ''  Give  ear,  ye  magistrates, 
and  all  who  are  guilty,  for  this  the  Lord 
hath  said  concerning  you,  who  will  per- 
form his  promise  upon  you,  that  the 
same  day  that  you  put  his  servants  to 
death  shall  the  day  of  your  visitation 
pass  over  your  heads,  and  you  shall  be 
cursed  forevermore,  the  Lord  of  Hosts 
hath  spoken  it ;  therefore  in  love  to  you 
all  take  warning  before  it  be  too  late, 
that  so  the  curse  might  be  removed ;  for 
assuredly  if  you  put  us  to  death,  you 
will  bring  innocent  blood  upon  your  own 
heads,  and  swift  destruction  will  come 
upon  you : "  whereupon  he,  too,  was 
sent  back  to  jail. 


44  MARY   DYER 

Then  Mary  Dyer  was  brought  to  the 
bar  of  the  Court,  and  the  Governor  pro- 
nounced sentence  upon  her  as  follows : 
"  Mary  Dyer,  you  shall  go  from  hence 
to  the  place  from  whence  you  came, 
and  from  thence  to  the  place  of  execu- 
tion, and  there  be  hanged  till  you  be 
dead."  To  which  she  said,  "  The  will 
of  the  Lord  be  done." — ^^Take  her 
away.  Marshal,"  quoth  the  Governor. 
She  replied,  "  Yea,  and  joyfully  I  go." 
And  on  her  way  to  prison  she  used  simi- 
lar words,  with  praises  to  the  Lord.  To 
the  marshal  who  had  her  in  custody, 
she  said,  "  Let  me  alone,  for  I  should 
go  to  prison  without  you."  —  "I  believe 
you,  Mrs.  Dyer,  "  he  rejoined,  "but  I 
must  do  what  I  am  commanded." 

Great  influence  was  brought  to  bear  to 
prevent  the  execution  of  the  sentences. 
Governor  Winthrop  of  Connecticut   ap- 


TETE   QUAKER   MARTYR  45 

peared  before  the  Massachusetts  authori- 
ties, urijrino:  that  the  condemned  be  not 
put  to  death.  He  said  that  he  would 
beo;  it  of  them  on  his  bare  knees  that 

o 

they  would  not  do  it.  Colonel  Temple  ^ 
also  addressed  the  authorities,  and  said 
that  if  according  to  their  declarations 
they  desired  the  prisoners'  lives  absent 
rather  than  their  deaths  present,  he 
would  beg  them  of  the  authorities,  and 
would  carry  them  away  at  his  own 
charge,  and  give  them  a  house  to  live 
in,  and  corn  to  feed  on,  and  land  for 
them  and  their  heirs  to  plant  on,  that 
so   once  within   a  year   they   should   be 

1  The  proceedings  of  the  General  Court  of  Massachu- 
setts for  October  19,  1658  {Records  of  Mass.,  VoL  lY. 
Part  I.  p.  355),  show  that  "the  honourable  Colonell 
Thomas  Temple  is,  by  comission  from  his  highness 
the  Lord  Protector,  constituted  governor  of  Acady 
and  Xova  Scotia,  from  INIereliquish  on  the  east,  to  St. 
Georges  and  Musconcus  on  the  confines  of  Xew  Eng- 
land, on  the  west." 


46  MARY   DYER 

able  to  provide  for  themselves;  and  if 
any  of  them  should  come  hither  again, 
he  would  a£>ain  fetch  them  at  his  own 
charge.  Governor  Endicott,  the  Rev. 
John  Wilson,  and  the  whole  pack  of 
persecutors,  however,  seemed  to  thirst 
for  blood;  and  it  was  determined  that 
somebody  must  die. 

The  27th  of  October,  1659,  was  fixed 
for  the  triple  execution,  and  elaborate 
preparations,  for  those  days,  were  made 
for  it.  Popular  excitement  ran  high, 
and  the  people  resorted  to  the  prison 
windows  to  hold  communication  with 
the  condemned,  so  the  male  prisoners 
were  put  in  irons,  and  a  force  was 
detailed,  in  the  words  of  the  order,  "to 
watch  with  great  care  tlie  towne,  espe- 
cially the  prison."  Captain  James  Oliver 
was  ordered  to  detail  one  hundred  sol- 
diers "  proportionably  out  of  each  com- 


THE    QUAKER    MARTYR  47 

pany  in  Boston,  completely  armed  with 
pike,  and  nmsketeers  with  powder  and 
bullet/'  to  escort  the  prisoners  to  the 
place  of  execution;  though  subsequently 
the  order  was  modified  so  that  thirty- 
six  of  the  soldiers  were  to  remain  in 
and  about  the  town,  while  the  rest  went 
to  the  place  of  execution. 

The  eventful  day  having  arrived, 
Captain  Oliver  and  his  military  guard 
attended  to  receive  the  prisoners.  The 
marshal  and  the  jailer  brought  them 
forth,  the  men  from  the  jail,  and  Mary 
Dyer  from  the  House  of  Correction. 
They  parted  from  their  friends  at  the 
prison  full  of  joy,  thanking  the  Lord 
that  he  accounted  them  worthy  to  suf- 
fer for  his  name  and  had  kept  them 
faithful  to  the  end.  The  condemned 
came  forth  hand  in  hand,  Mary  Dyer 
between  the  other  two,  and  when  the 


48  MARY  DYER 

marshal  asked  her,  "Whether  she  was 
not  ashamed  to  walk  hand  in  hand 
between  two  young  men,"  for  her  com- 
panions were  much  younger  than  she, 
she  replied,  "It  is  an  hour  of  the  great- 
est joy  I  can  enjoy  in  this  world.  No 
eye  can  see,  no  ear  can  hear,  no  tongue 
can  speak,  no  heart  can  understand,  the 
sweet  incomes  and  refreshings  of  the 
spirit  of  the  Lord  which  now  I  enjoy." 
The  concourse  of  people  was  immense, 
the  guard  was  strong  and  strict,  and 
when  the  prisoners  sought  to  speak  the 
drums  were  caused  to  be  beaten. 

The  method  of  execution  was  ex- 
tremely simple  in  those  days.  A  great 
elm  upon  Boston  Common  constituted 
the  gallows.  The  halter  having  been 
adjusted  round  the  prisoner's  neck,  he 
was  forced  to  ascend  a  ladder  affording 
an  approach  to  the  limb  to  be  used  for 


THE    (QUAKER   MARTYR  49 

the  fatal  purpose,  to  which  limb  the 
other  end  of  the  halter  was  attached. 
Then  the  ladder  was  pulled  aw^ay,  and 
the  execution,  though  rude,  was  com- 
plete. 

Having  arrived  at  the  place  of  exe- 
cution/ the  Rev.  Mr.  Wilson  tauntingly 
said  to  the  prisoners,  "Shall  such  Jacks 
as  you,  come  in  before  authority  with 
your  Hats  on  ? "  To  w^hich  Robinson 
replied,  "  Mind  you,  mind  you,  it  is  for 
not  putting  off  the  Hat  w^e  are  put  to 
Death."  The  prisoners  took  a  tender 
leave  of  one  another,  and  William  Rob- 
inson, wdio  was  the  first  to  suffer,  said, 
as  he  was   about  to   be   turned   off   by 

1  Peleg  W.  Chandler,  writing  in  1841,  in  Chand- 
ler's Criminal  Trials,  Vol.  I.,  j).  44,  note,  says  in  regard 
to  the  execution  of  the  Quakers  :  "  These  executions 
are  supposed  to  have  taken  place  on  Boston  Connnon, 
probably  near  where  the  Mollis  Street  Church  now 
stands." 

E 


50  MARY   DYER 

the  executioner,  "  I  suffer  for  Christ,  in 
whom  I  lived,  and  for  whom  I  die." 
Marmaduke  Stephenson  came  next,  and, 
being  on  the  ladder,  lie  said  to  the 
people,  ^^  Be  it  known  unto  all  this  day, 
that  we  suffer  not  as  evil-doers,  but  for 
conscience  sake."  Next  came  Mary 
Dyer's  turn.  Expecting  immediate 
death,  she  had  been  forced  to  wait  at 
the  foot  of  the  fatal  tree,  with  a  rope 
about  her  neck,  and  witness  the  vio- 
lent taking  off  of  her  friends.  With 
their  lifeless  bodies  hanging  before  her, 
she  was  made  ready  to  be  suspended 
beside  them.  Her  arms  and  legs  were 
bound,  and  her  skirts  secured  about  her 
feet ;  her  face  was  covered  with  a  hand- 
kerchief which  the  Rev.  Mr.  Wilson, 
who  had  been  her  pastor  when  she  lived 
in  Boston,  had  loaned  the  hangman. 
And  there,  made  ready  for  death,  with 


THE   QUAKER   MARTYR  51 

the  halter  round  her  neck,  she  stood 
upon  the  fatal  ladder  in  calm  serenity, 
expecting  to  die.  Human  devices  to 
arouse  terror  and  to  break  her  spirit 
had  failed.  She  stood  there  on  that 
grim  height,  gazing  backward,  as  it 
were,  upon  time,  and  forward  into  eter- 
nity, without  a  tremor.  In  another 
moment  her  life  would  be  like  a  tale 
that  is  told.  Just  then  an  order  for  a 
reprieve,  upon  the  petition  of  her  son 
all  unknown  to  her,  arrives.  The  hal- 
ter is  loosed  from  her  neck  and  she  is 
unbound  and  told  to  come  down  the 
ladder.  She  neither  answered  nor 
moved.  In  the  words  of  the  Quaker 
chronicler,  "  she  was  waiting  on  the 
Lord  to  know  his  pleasure  in  so  sudden 
a  change,  having  given  herself  up  to 
dye."  The  people  cried,  ''  Pull  her 
down.'"     So  earnest  were  they  that  she 


52  MARY   DYER 

tried  to  prevail  upon  them  to  wait  a 
little  whilst  she  mi^ht  consider  and 
know  of  the  Lord  what  to  do.  The 
people  were  pulling  her  and  the  ladder 
down  together,  when  they  were  stopped, 
and  the  marshal  took  her"  down  in  his 
arms,  and  she  was  carried  back  to 
prison. 

All  this  dismal  spectacle  made  by  the 
authorities,  of  Mary  Dyer,  on  the  27tli 
of  October,  1659,  was  but  a  cold-blooded 
refinement  of  cruelty  to  shake  her  con- 
stancy and  overcome  her  fortitude.  It 
was  a  mere  prearranged  scheme,  for 
before  she  set  forth  from  the  prison 
it  had  been  determined  that  she  was 
not  to  be  executed,  as  shown  by  the 
reprieve  itself,  which  reads  as  follows: 
^'Whereas  Mary  Dyer  is  condemned  by 
the  Generall  Court  to  be  executed  for 
liir  offences,  on  the  petition  of  William 


THE   QUAKER   MARTYR  53 

Dier,  liir  sonne,  it  is  ordered  that  tlie 
sajd  Mary  Dyer  shall  have  liberty  for 
forty-eight  liowers  after  this  day  to 
depart  out  of  this  jurisdiction,  after 
which  tjme,  being  found  therein,  she  is 
forthwith  to  be  executed,  and  in  the 
meane  time  that  she  be  kept  a  close 
prisoner  till  hir  sonne  or  some  other  be 
ready  to  carry  hir  away  w"'in  the  afore- 
sajd  tyme ;  and  it  is  further  ordered, 
that  she  shall  be  carrjed  to  the  place 
of  execution,  and  there  to  stand  upon 
the  gallowes,  with  a  rope  about  her 
necke,  till  the  rest  be  executed,  and 
then  to  returne  to  the  prison  and  re- 
majne  as  aforesajd." 

Evidently  her  Puritan  persecutors 
did  not  know  Mary  Dyer.  When  she 
returned  to  prison  and  understood  the 
ground  of  the  rejDrieve,  she  refused  it, 
and  the  next  morning  she  wrote  to  the 


54  MARY   DYER 

General  Court,  again  refusing  to  accept 
her  life  from  her  persecutors.  She  said : 
"  My  life  is  not  accepted,  neither  avail- 
eth  me,  in  comparison  with  the  lives 
and  liberty  of  the  Truth  and  Servants 
of  the  living  God,  for  which  in  the 
Bowels  of  Love  and  Meekness  I  sought 
you;  yet  nevertheless  with  wicked 
Hands  have  you  put  two  of  them  to 
Death,  which  makes  me  to  feel  that 
the  Mercies  of  the  Wicked  is  cruelty ; 
I  rather  chuse  to  Dye  than  to  live,  as 
from  you,  as  Guilty  of  their  Innocent 
Blood." 

Such  constancy  and  courage  as  the 
prisoners  had  displayed  greatly  excited 
the  populace  against  the  authorities, 
who  were  in  a  quandary  w^hat  to  do 
with  Mary  Dyer ;  for  as  the  reprieve 
had  been  kept  secret,  neither  young 
William  Dyer  nor  any  one  else  had  ap- 


THE   QUAKEE    ISIARTYR  55 

peared  to  take  charge  of  his  mother; 
so  the  day  after  the  execution  some 
officials  came  and  took  her  in  their 
arms  and  set  her  on  horseback  and 
conveyed  her  fifteen  miles  towards 
Rhode  Island  and  left  her  with  a  horse 
and  man  to  be  conveyed  further.  Pop- 
ular indignation  was  both  loud  and 
deep.  So  pronounced  was  it  that  the 
authorities  deemed  it  necessary  to  put 
forth  a  declaration  in  vindication  of 
their  course,  or  rather,  it  would  seem, 
an  apology;  for  such  reprehensible  and 
indefensible  conduct  could  not  be  vindi- 
cated, and  it  is  in  answer  to  that  apol- 
ogy that  George  Bishop  wrote  his  book, 
to  which  I  have  already  referred.  Par- 
ticularly did  the  Massachusetts  authori- 
ties claim  credit  for  their  reprieve  of 
Mary  Dyer,  and  ingeniously  and  indus- 
triously  did   they   seek    to    soften    the 


56  MARY  DYER 

judgment  of  men  upon  the  martyrdom 
of  Robinson  and  Stephenson,  by  vaunt- 
ing the  consideration  they  claimed  to 
have  shown  Mary  Dyer  —  an  argument 
which  we  shall  see  reacted  upon  them 
when  we  come  to  note  its  effect  upon 
the  recipient  of  the  boasted  clemency. 

Mary  Dyer  went  to  Rhode  Island, 
where  she  did  not  tarry  long,  as  she 
spent  most  of  the  winter  on  Long  Island. 
Terribly  in  earnest  was  she;  and  her 
sufferings  in  no  wise  abated  her  purpose 
to  combat,  even  unto  death,  the  wicked 
persecution  taking  place  in  Massachu- 
setts. She  was  especially  roused  at  the 
attempt  to  vindicate  the  execution  of 
Robinson  and  Stephenson ;  and  the  clem- 
ency extended  to  her  she  believed  to  be 
a  mere  device  to  divert,  in  a  measure, 
popular  indignation.  She  therefore  de- 
termined  to   go   again   to   Boston,    and 


THE    QUAKER   MARTYR  57 

again  defy  the  authorities,  forcing  them 
either  to  practically  annul  their  unjust 
laws,  if  they  did  not  proceed  against 
her,  or  else  by  her  death  to  awaken 
popular  indignation  that  would  compel 
the  repeal  of  them.  She  arrived  in 
Boston  May  21,  1660,  and  ten  days 
later  she  was  brought  before  the  magis- 
trates. ^^Are  you  the  same  Mary  Dyer," 
inquired  Governor  Endicott,  ^Hhat  was 
here  before?"  —  '^I  am  the  same  Mary 
Dyer  that  was  here  the  last  General 
Court,"  she  undauntedly  replied.  "  You 
will  own  yourself  a  Quaker,"  the  Gov- 
ernor inquired,  ^' will  you  not?" — "I 
own  myself  to  be  reproachfully  so 
called,"   responded   Mary   Dyer.^     Then 

1  W.  M.  Ferriss,in  the  article  on  "  Friends  "  in  the 
American  Cyclopcedia,  says:  "They  soon  adopted  the 
name  of  'the  Religions  Society  of  Friends,'  by  which 
they  are  always  known  among  themselves.  The  origin 
of  the  name  Quaker  is  not  entirely  certain.     By  some 


58  MAEY   DYER 

the  Governor  said,  "  Sentence  was  passed 
upon  you  the  last  General  Court ;  and 
now  likewise  —  You  must  return  to  the 
prison,  and  there  remain  till  to-morrow 
at  nine  o'clock ;  then  thence  you  must 
go  to  the  gallows,  and  there  be  hanged 
till  you  are  dead."  Mary  Dyer  replied, 
"  This  is  no  more  than  what  thou  saidst 
before."  —  "But  now,"  said  the  Gov- 
ernor, "it  is  to  be  executed.  Therefore 
prepare  yourself  to-morrow  at  nine 
o'clock."  Then  she  spoke  thus :  "  I 
came  in  obedience  to  the  will  of   God 

it  is  affirmed  that  it  was  given  '  in  derision,  because 
they  often  trembled  under  an  awful  sense  of  the 
infinite  purity  and  majesty  of  God.'  By  others  it  is 
said  that  it  was  first  applied  to  them  in  1650,  when 
George  Fox  was  brought  before  the  magistrates  of 
Derby,  and  he  having  told  them  to  'quake  at  the 
name  of  the  Lord,'  one  of  them,  Gervase  Bennet,  an 
Independent,  caught  up  the  word,  and,  says  Fox, 
'was  the  first  that  called  us  Quakers.'  However  the 
name  originated,  it  soon  became  the  one  by  which 
they  were  generally  known  in  all  parts  of  the  world." 


THE  QUAKER   MARTYR  59 

the  last  General  Court,  desiring  you  to 
repeal  your  unrighteous  laws  of  banish- 
ment on  pain  of  death;  and  that  same 
is  my  work  now,  and  earnest  request, 
although  I  told  you  that  if  you  refused 
to  repeal  them,  the  Lord  would  send 
others  of  his  servants  to  witness  against 
them."  Whereupon  the  Governor  sneer- 
ingly  inquired  if  she  was  a  prophetess? 
To  which  she  replied,  she  spoke  the 
words  the  Lord  spoke  in  her ;  and  now 
the  thing  was  come  to  pass.  She  then 
proceeded  to  speak  of  her  call,  when 
the  Governor  cried,  *•'  Away  with  her ! 
away  with  her !  "  And  she  was  taken 
back  to  jail.  Her  husband,  who  was 
not  a  Quaker,  and  did  not  share  her 
views,  wrote  a  letter  of  earnest  inter- 
cession for  his  wife's  life  to  Governor 
Endicott,  but  in  vain.^ 

1  See  Appendix  III, 


60  MARY  DYER 

On  June  1,  1660,  at  nine  o'clock, 
Mary  Dyer  again  set  out  from  the  jail 
for  the  gallows  on  Boston  Common, 
surrounded  by  a  strong  military  guard. 
As  she  stood  upon  the  fatal  ladder,  she 
was  told  if  she  would  return  home,  she 
might  come  down  and  save  her  life. 
"  Nay,"  she  replied,  "  I  cannot ;  for  in 
obedience  to  the  will  of  the  Lord  God 
I  came,  and  in  his  will  I  abide  faithful 
to  the  death."  Captain  John  Webb,  the 
commander  of  the  military,  said  to  her 
that  she  had  been  there  before,  and  had 
the  sentence  of  banishment  on  pain  of 
death,  and  had  broken  the  law  in  com- 
ing again  now,  as  well  as  formerly,  and 
therefore  she  was  guilty  of  her  own 
blood.  ''  Nay,"  she  replied,  "  I  came  to 
keep  blood-guiltiness  from  you,  desiring 
you  to  repeal  the  unrighteous  and  unjust 
law  of  banishment  upon  pain  of  death. 


THE   QUAKER   MARTYR  61 

made  against  the  innocent  servants  of 
the  Lord,  therefore  my  blood  will  be 
required  at  your  hands  who  wilfully  do 
it ;  but  for  those  that  do  it  in  the  sim- 
plicity of  their  hearts,  I  do  desire  the 
Lord  to  forgive  them.  I  came  to  do 
the  will  of  my  Father,  and  in  obedience 
to  his  will  I  stand  even  to  the  death." 
Then  her  old  Puritan  pastor,  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Wilson,  bade  her  repent,  and  be 
not  so  deluded  and  carried  away  by 
the  deceit  of  the  devil.  To  which  she 
replied,  "  Nay,  man,  I  am  not  now 
to  repent."  Being  asked  whether  she 
would  have  the  Elders  pray  for  her,  she 
replied,  "I  know  never  an  Elder  here." 
They  asked  whether  she  would  have 
any  of  the  people  pray  for  her  ?  She 
responded,  "  I  desire  the  prayers  of  all 
the  people  of  God."  Some  scoffingly 
said,  "  It  may  be  she  thinks  there  are 


62  MARY   DYER 

none  here."  Looking  about,  she  said, 
"  1  know  but  few  here."  Then  they 
spoke  to  her  again,  that  one  of  the 
Elders  might  pray  for  her.  She  replied, 
"  Nay,  first  a  child,  then  a  young  man, 
then  a  strong  man,  before  an  Elder  of 
Christ  Jesus."  And  more  she  spake  of 
the  eternal  happiness  into  which  she 
was  about  to  enter ;  and  then,  without 
tremor  or  trepidation,  she  was  swung 
off,  and  the  crown  of  martyrdom  de- 
scended upon  her  head.  Thus  died 
brave  Mary  Dyer.^  Her  remains  were 
buried  on  Boston  Common,  and  there 
they    now  rest   in   an   unknown  grave. 

1  Dr.  Snow,  in  his  History  of  Boston,  p.  198,  says : 
"  One  of  the  officers  under  the  gallows  at  the  time  of 
her  execution,  Edward  Wanton,  was  so  affected  at 
the  sight,  that  he  became  a  convert  to  the  cause  of  the 
Friends."  The  same  writer  informs  us  that  Wanton 
was  arrested  on  May  4,  1664,  for  holding  a  Quaker 
meeting  at  his  house  in  Boston. 


THE   QUAKER   MARTYR  63 

In  the  Friends'  Records  of  Portsmouth, 
Rhode  Island,  is  this  entry :  "  Mary 
Dyer  the  wife  of  William  Dyer  of  New- 
port in  Rhode  Island  :  She  was  put  to 
death  at  the  Town  of  Boston  with  y^ 
like  cruil  hand  as  the  martyrs  were  in 
Queen  Mary's  time,  and  there  buried 
upon  y^  31  day  of  y^  3^  mo.  1660."  It 
will  be  observed  there  is  an  error  of  a 
day  in  the  date. 

Mary  Dyer's  Puritan  persecutors, 
strange  to  say,  have  found  many  apolo- 
gists whose  excuses  are  flimsy  indeed. 
Had  her  persecutors  been  Romish  priests 
instead  of  Puritan  ministers  and  magis- 
trates, such  apologists,  it  is  believed, 
would  entertain  different  views.  The 
persecutions  of  the  Quakers  were  purely 
religious  and  were  by  no  means  con- 
fined to  those  who  were  guilty  of  impro- 
prieties of  manner  or  conduct.      Some  of 


64  MARY   DYER 

the  worthiest  inhabitants  of  Massachu- 
setts were  cruelly  punished  for  afford- 
ing the  Quakers  shelter,  or  giving  them 
food,  or  attending  their  meetings,  and 
even  for  merely  deprecating  the  inhu- 
manities practised  upon  them.  There 
was  nothing  in  Quaker  doctrine  or 
practice  inherently  difficult  to  get  on 
with.  If  Rhode  Island  found  no  diffi- 
culty in  enduring  the  Quakers,  why 
could  not  the  other  New  England  Colo- 
nies endure  them  just  as  well? 

The  Puritan  persecutors  themselves 
said  that  Mary  Dyer  was  guilty  of  her 
own  blood.  Human  rights  were  noth- 
ing to  them  when  their  purposes  were 
crossed,  and  they  wondered  at  a  hero- 
ism they  could  not  understand,  and 
which  was  ready  to  face  death,  if  need 
be,  in  the  struggle  with  oppression. 
The    horrible     persecutions     themselves 


THE    QUAKER   MARTYR  65 

produced  the  martyrs.  Men's  minds 
were  wrought  up  to  the  highest  pitch, 
and  some  were  so  roused  that  they 
were  willing  to  die  to  put  down  such 
wrongs.  The  feeling  is  well  illustrated 
by  the  woman  who,  in  1658,  at  the 
sight  of  the  cruel  and  bloody  infliction 
of  thirty-three  stripes  each  upon  two 
Quakers,  at  Barnstable,  with  a  three- 
corded  knotted  whip,  cried  out  in  the 
grief  and  anguish  of  her  spirit :  "  How 
long,  0  Lord,  how  long  shall  it  be  ere 
thou  avenge  the  blood  of  thine  elect?" 
And  afterwards  in  her  bewailings  she 
cried  :  "Did  T  forsake  father  and  mother 
and  all  my  dear  relatives  to  come  to 
New  England  for  this  ?  Did  I  ever 
think  that  New  England  would  come 
to  this  ?  Who  would  have  thought 
it?" 

Mary  Dyer  did  not  die  in  vain.     But 


66  MARY   DYER 

one  more  Quaker  was  executed,^  and 
then  the  torrent  of  public  indignation 
made  itself  effectually  felt.  Governor 
Endicott  stormed  and  raved  at  his 
brother-magistrates  for  Avhat  he  deemed 
their  weakness,  but  it  was  all  in  vain  ; 
for  they  would  not  further  imbrue  their 
hands  in  human  blood  for  such  a  cause, 
and  even  if  they  would  the  King  sent 
over  to  forbid  it,  ordering  the  Quakers 
to  be  sent  to  England  for  trial  and 
punishment.  Though  the  royal  order 
was  subsequently  modified,  and  persecu- 
tion began  again  and  continued  for 
nearly  twenty  years,  yet  it  went  on 
only  intermittently  and  with  decreas- 
ing severity  until  it    ceased  altogether.^ 

1  William  Leddra,  the  last  Quaker  martyr  to 
suffer  death  in  Massachusetts,  was  hung  on  Boston 
Common  iMarch  14,  IGGl. 

2  See  Appendix  IV. 


THE  QUAKER   MAllTYR  67 

Roger  Williams,  the  great  apostle  of 
Soul-Liberty,  was  thrust  out  of  Massa- 
chusetts for  conscience  sake,  but  Mary 
Dyer,  a  humbler  sufferer  in  the  same 
great  cause,  to  enable  the  Heaven-im- 
planted principle  to  obtain  root  on 
Massachusetts  soil  itself,  persisted  in 
remaining  and  watering  it  with  her 
blood,  and  God  gave  the  increase ;  so 
that  nowhere  on  the  face  of  the  earth 
to-day  is  liberty  of  conscience  more 
free  or  more  highly  revered  than  on 
the  very  spot  where,  in  the  words  of 
General  Atherton,  one  of  her  persecu- 
tors, "  Mary  Dyer  did  hang  as  a  flag 
for  others  to  take  example  by." 

Each  must  judge  for  himself  of  the 
credit  due  Mary  Dyer  for  her  suffer- 
ings and  death.  It  is  a  growing  belief 
that  when,  in  coming  ages,  the  roll 
shall  be  made  up  of  those  whose  lives 


68  MARY   DYER 

or  deaths  contributed  to  the  establish- 
ment among  men  of  the  immortal  prin- 
ciple of  liberty  of  conscience,  inscribed 
in  enduring  fame  upon  it  will  be  found 
the  name  of  Mary  Dyer. 


APPENDICES 


APPENDIX  I 

Letter  from  the  Commissioners  of  the  United 
Colonies  to  Rhode  Island^  concerniiig  the 
Quakers. 

"  The  Commissioners  being  Informed  that 
divers  quakers  are  arrived  this  summer  att 
Road  Hand,  and  entertained  there  which 
may  prove  dangerous  to  the  Collonies, 
thought  meet  to  manifest  theire  minds  to 
the  Governor  there  as  follovveth: 

"Gent: 

"  Wee  suppose  you  have  understood  that 
the  last  yeare  a  companie  of  quakers  arived 
att  Boston  upon  noe  other  account  than  to 
desperse  theire  pernisiouse  opinions  had  they 
not  bene  prevented  by  the  prudent  care  of 
that  Goverment,  whoe  by  that  experience 
they   had    of    them   being    sencable    of    the 

71 


72  APPENDIX    I 

Danger  that  might  beefale  the  Christian 
Religion  heer  proffessed,  by  suffering  such 
to  bee  Received  or  continued  in  the  Countrey, 
presented  the  same  unto  the  Comissioners 
att  theire  meetinge  att  Plymouth  whoe 
upon  that  occation  co  mended  it  to  the 
generall  courts  of  the  united  Collonies, 
that  all  quakers,  Rantors,  and  such  notori- 
ous heretiques  might  bee  prohibited  coming 
among  us  and  that  if  such  should  arise 
from  amongst  ourselves  speedy  care  might 
bee  taken  to  Remove  them  (and  as  wee  are 
Informed)  the  severall  Jurisdictions  have 
made  provision  accordingly ;  but  it  is  by 
experience  found  that  means  will  fall  short 
without  further  care  by  Reason  of  youer  Ad- 
mition  and  Receiveing  of  such  from  whence 
they  may  have  oppertunitie  to  creep  in 
amongst  us  or  meanes  to  enfuse  and  spred 
theire  Accursed  tenates  to  the  great  trouble 
of  the  Collonies  if  not  to  the  subversion  of 
the  "  [lawes]  ''  professed  in  tliem  ;  Notwith- 
standing any  care  that   hath   been   hitherto 


APPENDIX    I  73 

taken  to  prevent  the  same  whereof  wee 
cannot  bnt  bee  very  sencable  and  thinke 
noe  care  to  great  to  preserve  us  from  such 
a  pest  the  Contagion  whereof  (if  Received) 
within  youer  Collonie  were  dangerous,  &c 
to  bee  defused  to  the  other  by  means  of  the 
Intercourse,  especially  to  the  places  of  trad 
amongst  us ;  Avhich  wee  desire  may  bee 
with  safety  continued  between  us ;  Wee 
therefore  make  it  our  Request  that  you  as 
well  as  the  Rest  of  the  Collonies  take  such 
order  heerin  that  youer  Naigh hours  may  bee 
freed  from  that  Danger ;  That  you  Remove 
those  Quakers  that  have  been  Received, 
and  for  the  future  prohibite  theire  coming 
amongst  you  ;  whereunto  the  Rule  of  Charitie 
to  youer  selves  and  us  (wee  conceive)  doth 
oblidge  you  wherin  if  you  should  wee 
hope  you  will  not  be  wanting;  yett  wee 
could  not  but  signify  this  our  Desire ;  and 
further  declare  that  wee  apprehend  that  it 
wil  bee  our  Duty  seriously  to  consider 
what  further  provision  God  may  call  us  to 


74  APPENDIX    I 

make  to  prevent  the  aforsaid  mischiefe; 
and  for  our  further  guidance  and  direction 
heerin  wee  desire  you  to  Imparte  youer 
mind  and  Resolution  to  the  Generall  court 
of  the  Massachusetts  which  Assembleth  the 
14th  of  October  next ;  wee  have  not  further 
to  trouble  you  att  present  but  to  Assure 
you  wee  desire  to  continew  youer  loveinge 
Frinds  and  Naighbours,  the  Comissioners 
of  the  united  Collonie. 

"Boston  Septem.  12,  1657. 

"Simon  Bradstreet,  Presedent. 

"  Daniel  Denison, 

"  Thomas  Prence, 

"  John  Mason, 

"John  Taylcott, 

"  Theophilus  Eaton, 

"William  Leete.*' 

[Hazard's  State  Papers,  Vol.  II.  p.  370;  also  Ehodc 
Island  Colonial  Records,  Vol.  I.  p.  374.] 


APPENDIX    I  76 

Letter  from  the  Government  of  the  Colony  of 
Rhode  Island^  in  rej^hj  to  the  letter  from 
the  Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies^ 
concerning  the   Quakers. 

"Much   honoured   Gentlemen. 

"Please  you  to  understand,  that  there 
hath  come  to  our  view  a  letter  subscribed 
by  the  honour'd  gentlemen  commissioners  of 
the  united  coloneys,  the  contents  whereof 
are  a  request  concerning  certayne  people 
called  quakers,  come  among  us  lately,  &c. 

"  Our  desires  are,  in  all  things  possible, 
to  pursue  after  and  keepe  fayre  and  loveing 
corespondence  and  entercourse  with  all  the 
colloneys  and  with  all  our  countreymen  in 
New  England ;  and  to  that  purpose  we  have 
endeavoured  (and  shall  still  endeavour)  to 
answere  the  desires  and  requests  from  all 
parts  of  the  countrey,  coming  unto  us,  in  all 
just  and  equall  returnes,  to  which  end  the  col- 
oney  have  made  seasonable  provision  to  pre- 


76  APPENDIX    I 

serve  a  just  and  equal  entercourse  between 
the  coloneys  and  us,  by  giving  justice  to 
any  that  demand  it  among  us,  and  by  re- 
turning such  as  make  escapes  from  you,  or 
from  the  other  coloneys,  being  such  as  fly 
from  the  hands  of  justice,  for  matters  of 
crime  done  or  committed  amongst  you,  &c. 
And  as  concerning  these  quakers  (so  caled) 
which  are  now  among  us,  we  have  no  law 
among  us  whereby  to  punish  any  for  only 
declaring  by  words,  &c.  their  mindes  and 
understandings  concerning  the  things  and 
ways  of  God,  as  to  salvation  and  an  eternal 
condition.  And  we,  moreover,  finde,  that 
in  those  places  where  these  people  aforesaid, 
in  this  coloney,  are  most  of  all  suffered  to 
declare  themselves  freely,  and  are  only  op- 
osed  by  arguments  in  discourse,  there  they 
least  of  all  desire  to  come,  and  we  are  in- 
formed that  they  begin  to  loath  this  place, 
for  that  they  are  not  opposed  by  the  civill 
authority,  but  with  all  patience  and  meek- 
nes  are  suffered  to  say  over  their  pretended 


APPENDIX    I  77 

revelations  and  admonitions,  nor  are  they 
like  or  able  to  gain  many  here  to  their  way ; 
and  surely  we  find  that  they  delight  to  be 
persecuted  by  civill  powers,  and  when  they 
are  soe,  they  are  like  to  gaine  more  adherents 
by  the  conseyte  of  their  patient  sufferings, 
tlian  by  consent  to  their  pernicious  sayings. 
And  yet  we  concive,  that  theire  doctrines 
tend  to  very  absolute  cutting  downe  and 
overturning  relations  and  civill  government 
among  men,  if  generally  received.  But  as 
to  the  dammage  that  in  likelyhood  accrue 
to  the  neighbour  collone3's  by  their  being 
here  entertained,  we  conceive  it  will  not 
prove  so  dangerous  (as  else  it  might)  in 
regard  of  the  course  taken  by  you  to  send 
them  away  out  of  the  countrey,  as  they  come 
among  you.  But,  however,  at  present,  we 
judge  it  requisitt  (and  doe  intend)  to  com- 
mend the  consideration  of  their  extravagant 
outgoings  unto  the  generall  assembly  of 
our  colloney  in  March  next,  where  we  hope 
there  will  be  such  order  taken,  as  may,  in  all 


78  APPENDIX    I 

honest  and  contientious  manner,  prevent  the 
bad  effects  of  their  doctrines  and  endeav- 
ours ;  and  soe,  in  all  courtious  and  loving  re- 
spects, and  with  desire  of  all  honest  and 
fayre  commerce  with  you,  and  the  rest  of  our 
honoured  and  beloved  countreymen,  we  rest 
"Yours  in  all  loving  respects  to  serve  you, 

"  Benedict  Arnold,  Presid. 
"  William  Baulston, 
"Randall  Howldon, 
"  Arthur  Fenner, 
"William  Feild. 

"From  Providence,  at  the  court  of  tryals, 
"held  for  the  coloney,  October  13'^  1657. 

"  To  the  much  honoured,  the  Generall  Court, 
"  sitting  at  Boston,  for  the  Colloney  of 
"  Massachusetts." 

[Hutchinson's  History  of  Massachusetts,  Vol.  I.  Appen- 
dix XI.  p.  45o ;  also  Hazard's  State  Papers,  Vol.  II. 
p.  552 ;  also  Ehode  Island  Colonial  Becords,  Vol.  I.  p. 
376.] 


APPENDIX    I  79 

Letter  from  the  General  Assemhly  of  the  Col- 
ony of  Providence  Plantations  to  the  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  Colony^  in  reply  to  the  letter  of 
the  Commissioners  concerning  the   Quakers. 

"  Honored  Gentlemen : 

"  There  hath  beene  presented  to  oure  view 
by  our  Honored  president,  a  letter  bearing 
date  September  25*^  last,  subscribed  by  the 
Honoured  gentlemen  Commissioners  of  the 
United  Collonys  concerninge  a  company  of 
people  (lately  arrived  in  these  parts  of  the 
world),  commonly  knowne  by  the  name  of 
Quakers,  whoe  are  generally  conceived  per- 
nicious, either  intentionally,  or  at  least  wise 
in  efect,  even  to  the  corruptinge  of  good 
manners  and  disturbinge  the  common  peace 
and  sosieties  of  the  places  where  they  arise 
or  resort  unto,  &c. 

''Now,  whereas,  freedom  of  different  con- 
sciences, to  be  protected  from  inforcements 
was   the    principle    ground   of   our  Charter, 


80  APPENDIX   I 

both  with  respect  to  our  humble  sute  for 
it,  as  also  to  the  true  intent  of  the  Honour- 
able and  renowned  parleiment  of  England 
in  grauntinge  of  the  same  unto  us;  which 
freedom  we  still  prize  as  the  greatest  hapi- 
nes  that  men  can  posess  in  this  world. 

''  Therefore,  we  shall  for  the  preservation 
of  our  civill  peace  and  order,  the  more 
seriously  take  notice  that  those  people  and 
any  other  that  are  here,  or  shall  come 
amongst  us,  be  impartially  required,  and  to 
our  utmost  constrayned  to  perform  all  duties 
requisitt  towards  the  maintaineinge  the  right 
of  his  Highness  and  the  government  of  that 
most  renowned  Parliament  of  England  in 
this  collony,  Avhich  is  most  happily  included 
under  the  same  dominion  and  graciously 
taken  into  protection  thereof:  And  in  case 
they  the  sayd  Quakers  which  are  here,  or 
who  shall  arise  or  come  among  us,  doe 
refuse  to  subject  themselves  to  all  duties 
aforesayed,  as  trayninge,  watchinge,  and 
such  other  ingadgements,  as  other  members 


APPENDIX   I  81 

of  civill  societies,  for  the  preservation  of 
the  same  in  justice  and  peace ;  then  we 
determine,  yea,  and  we  resolve  (however) 
to  take  and  make  use  of  the  first  opur- 
tunity  to  inform  our  agent  residinge  in 
England,  that  we  may  humbly  present  the 
matter  (as  touchinge  the  considerations 
premised,  concerninge  the  aforenamed  peo- 
ple called  Quakers)  unto  the  supreame 
authority  of  England,  humbly  craveing  their 
advice  and  order,  how  to  carry  ourselves  in 
any  further  respect  towards  these  people  soe, 
that  therewithall  theire  may  be  noe  damadge, 
or  infringement  of  that  chiefe  principle  in 
our  charter  concerninge  freedom  of  con- 
sciences, and  we  alsoe  are  soe  much  the 
more  incouradged  to  make  our  addresses 
unto  the  Lord  Protector,  his  highness  and 
government  aforesayd ;  for  that  we  under- 
stand there  are,  or  have  beine  many  of  the 
foresayed  people  suffered  to  live  in  Eng- 
land; yea  even  in  the  heart  of  the  nation. 
And  thus  with  our  truly  thankfull  acknowl- 


82  APPENDIX   I 

edments  of  tlie  honourable  care  of  the  hon- 
ored gentlemen  commissioners  of  the  United 
Collonies,  for  the  peace  and  welfare  of  the 
whole  country,  as  is  expressed  in  their  most 
friendly  letter,  we  shall  at  present  take 
leave  and  rest. 

"  Yours,  most  affectionately  de- 
"sirous  of  your  honors  and 
"  welfaire. 

"John  Sanford, 

"Clerk  of  the  Assembly. 

"Portsmouth,  March  13th,  1657-8. 

"  From  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Col- 
"lony  of  Providence  Plantations. 

"  To  the  much  Honored  John  Endicott, 
"  Governor  of  the  Massachusetts,  to 
"be  alsoe  imparted  to  the  Honorable 
"  Commissioners  of  the  United  Collo- 
"  nies  at  their  next  meeting.    These  —  " 

IBhode  Island  Colonial  Becords^  Vol.  I.  p.  378.] 


APPENDIX   I  83 

Why  the  authorities  of  Rhode  Island  sent 
two  letters  five  months  apart,  to  the  General 
Court  of  Massachusetts  in  reply  to  the  letter 
of  the  Commissioners  of  the  United  Colo- 
nies, is  inexplicable  ;  for  the  letter  signed  by 
the  Clerk  of  the  General  Assembly  of  Rhode 
Island  evidently  refers  to  the  Commissioners' 
letter  of  September  12,  1657,  notwithstand- 
ing the  date  spoken  of  in  the  letter  signed 
by  the  Clerk,  is  September  25. 


APPENDIX  II 

Mary  Dyer's  Letter  to  the  Massachusetts  Gen- 
eral Court  after  she  had  received  sentence 
of  death. 

"To  the  General  Court  now  in  Boston. 

"  Whereas  I  am  by  many  charged  with  the 
Guiltiness  of  my  own  Blood;  if  you  mean, 
in  my  coming  to  Boston,  I  am  therein 
clear,  and  justified  by  the  Lord,  in  whose 
Will  I  came,  who  will  require  my  Blood  of 
you,  be  sure,  who  have  made  a  Law  to  take 
away  the  Lives  of  the  Innocent  Servants 
of  God,  if  they  come  among  you,  who  are 
called  by  you.  Cursed  Quakers;  altho'  I 
say,  and  am  a  living  Witness  for  them  and 
the  Lord,  that  he  hath  Blessed   them,  and 

84 


APPENDIX   II  85 

sent  them  unto  j^ou :  Therefore  be  not 
found  Fighters  against  God,  but  let  my 
Counsel  and  Request  be  accepted  with  you, 
To  Repeal  all  such  Laws,  that  the  Truth 
and  Servants  of  the  Lord  may  have  free 
Passage  among  you,  and  you  be  kept  from 
shedding  Innocent  Blood,  which  I  know 
there  are  many  among  you  would  not  do, 
if  they  knew  it  so  to  be :  Nor  can  the  En- 
emy that  stirreth  you  up  thus  to  destroy 
this  Holy  Seed,  in  any  measure  countervail 
the  great  Damage  that  you  will  by  thus 
doing  procure :  Therefore,  seeing  the  Lord 
hath  not  hid  it  from  me,  it  lyeth  upon  me, 
in  Love  to  your  Souls,  thus  to  persuade 
you :  I  have  no  self-ends,  the  Lord  know- 
eth,  for  if  my  Life  were  freely  granted  by 
you,  it  would  not  avail  me,  nor  could  I 
expect  it  of  you,  so  long  as  I  should  daily 
hear  or  see  the  Sufferings  of  these  People, 
my  dear  Brethren  and  Seed,  with  whom 
my  Life  is  bound  up,  as  I  have  done  these 
two  Years;  and  now  it  is  like  to  encrease, 


86  APPENDIX   TI 

even  unto  Death,  for  no  evil  Doing,  but 
coming  among  you :  Was  ever  the  like 
Laws  heard  of,  among  a  People  that  pro- 
fess Christ  come  in  the  Flesh?  And  have 
such  no  other  Weapons,  but  such  Laws,  to 
fight  against  Spiritual  Wickedness  withall, 
as  you  call  it  ?  Wo  is  me  for  you !  Of 
whom  take  you  Counsel?  Search  with  the 
Light  of  Christ  in  ye,  and  it  will  shew  you 
of  whom,  as  it  hath  done  me  and  many 
more,  who  have  been  disobedient  and  de- 
ceived, as  now  you  are ;  which  Light,  as 
you  come  into,  and  obeying  what  is  made 
manifest  to  you  therein,  you  will  not  Re- 
pent, that  you  were  kept  from  shedding 
Blood,  tho'  it  were  from  a  woman:  It's  not 
mine  own  Life  I  seek  (for  I  chuse  rather 
to  suffer  with  the  People  of  God,  than  to 
enjoy  the  Pleasures  of  Egypt)  but  the  Life 
of  the  Seed,  which  I  know  the  Lord  hath 
Blessed ;  and  therefore  seeks  the  Enem}'- 
thus  vehemently  the  Life  thereof  to  De- 
stroy, as    in    all    Ages    he    ever    did :    Oh ! 


APPENDIX  II  87 

hearken  not  unto  him,  1  beseech  you,  for 
the  Seed's  sake,  which  is  one  in  all,  and  is 
dear  in  the  sight  of  God ;  which  they  that 
touch,  touch  the  Apple  of  his  Eye,  and 
cannot  escape  his  Wrath ;  whereof  I  hav- 
ing felt,  cannot  but  perswade  all  Men  that 
I  have  to  do  withal,  especially  you  who 
name  the  Name  of  Christ,  to  depart  from 
such  Iniquity,  as  shedding  Blood,  even  of 
the  Saints  of  the  Most  High :  Therefore 
let  my  Request  have  as  much  Acceptance 
with  you  (if  you  be  Christians)  as  Esther 
had  with  Ashasuerus  (whose  Relation  is 
short  of  that  that's  between  Christians) 
and  my  Request  is  the  same  that  hers  was ; 
and  he  said  not,  that  he  had  made  a  Law, 
and  it  would  be  dishonourable  for  him  to 
Revoke  it;  but  when  he  understood  that 
these  People  were  so  prized  by  her,  and  so 
nearly  concerned  her  (as  in  Truth  these 
are  to  me)  as  you  may  see  what  he  did  for 
her:  Therefore  I  leave  these  Lines  with 
you,  Appealing    to    the    faithful    and    true 


88  APPENDIX   II 

Witness  of  God,  which  is  one  in  all  Con- 
sciences, before  whom  we  must  all  appear  ; 
with  whom  I  shall  eternally  Rest,  in  ever- 
lasting Joy  and  Peace,  whether  you  will 
hear  or  forbear :  With  him  is  my  Reward, 
with  Whom  to  live  is  my  Joy,  and  to  dye 
is  my  Gain,  tho'  I  had  not  had  your  forty 
eight  Hours  warning,  for  the  Preparation 
to  the  Death  of  Mary  Dyar. 

"  And  know  this  also.  That  if  through  the 
Enmity  you  shall  declare  your  selves  worse 
than  Ahasuerus,  and  confirm  your  Law,  tho' 
it  were  but  by  taking  away  the  Life  of  one 
of  us.  That  the  Lord  will  overthrow  both 
your  Law  and  you,  by  his  righteous  Judg- 
ments and  Plagues  poured  justly  upon  you, 
who  now  whilst  you  are  warned  thereof, 
and  tenderly  sought  unto,  may  avoid  the 
one,  by  removing  the  other :  If  you  neither 
hear  nor  obey  the  Lord  nor  his  Servants, 
yet  will  he  send  more  of  his  Servants  among 
you,  so  that  your  end  shall  be  frustrated, 
that  think  to  restrain  them,  you  call  Cursed 


APPENDIX   II  89 

Quakers^  from  coming  among  you,  by  any 
Thing  you  can  do  to  them ;  yea,  verily,  he 
hath  a  Seed  here  among  you,  for  whom  we 
have  suffered  all  this  while,  and  yet  Suffer ; 
whom  the  Lord  of  the  Harvest  will  send 
forth  more  Labourers  to  gather  (out  of  the 
Mouths  of  the  D^evourers  of  all  sorts)  into 
his  Fold,  where  he  will  lead  them  into  fresh 
Pastures,  even  the  Paths  of  Righteousness, 
for  his  Names  sake :  Oh !  let  none  of  you 
put  this  good  Day  far  from  you,  which  verily 
in  the  Light  of  the  Lord  I  see  approaching, 
even  to  many  in  and  about  Boston,  which 
is  the  bitterest  and  darkest  professing  Place, 
and  so  to  continue  so  long  as  you  have 
done,  that  ever  I  heard  of ;  let  the  time 
past  therefore  suffice,  for  such  a  Profession 
as  brings  forth  such  Fruits  as  these  Laws 
are.  In  Love  and  in  the  Spirit  of  Meekness 
I  again  beseech  you,  for  I  have  no  Enmity 
to  the  Persons  of  any ;  but  you  shall  know. 
That  God  will  not  be  mocked,  but  what 
you  sow,  that  shall  you  reap  from  him,  that 


90  APPENDIX   II 

will  render  to  everyone  according  to  the 
Deeds  done  in  the  Body,  whether  Good  or 
Evil;  Even  so  be  it,  saith 

*'Mary  Dyar." 

"A  Copy  of  this  was  given  to  the  General 
Court  after  Mary  Dyar  had  received  the 
Sentence  of  Death,  about  the  •8^'^  or  9*^^ 
Month,  1659." 

[Bishop's  New  England  judged  by  the  Spirit  of  the 
Lord,  288.] 


3Iary  Dyers  Letter  to  the  Massachusetts  Gen- 
eral Courts  written  the  day  after  she  was 
reprieved  on  the  gallows  tree. 

"The  28**^  of  the  8^'-  Month,  1659. 

"  Once  more  to  the  General  Court,  As- 
sembled in  Boston,  speaks  Mary  Dyar,  even 
as  before :  My  Life  is  not  accepted,  neither 
availeth  me,  in  Comparison  of  the  Lives 
and  Liberty  of  the  Truth  and  Servants  of 
the  living  God,  for  which  in  the  Bowels  of 


APPENDIX   II  91 

Love  and  Meekness  I  sought  you;  yet  nev- 
ertheless, with  wicked  Hands  have  you  put 
two  of  them  to  Death,  which  makes  me  to 
feel,  that  the  Mercies  of  the  Wicked  is  Cru- 
elty; I  rather  chuse  to  Dye  than  to  Live, 
as  from  you,  as  Guilty  of  their  innocent 
Blood:  Therefore,  seeing  my  Request  is 
hindred,  I  leave  you  to  the  Righteous  Judge, 
and  Searcher  of  all  Hearts,  who,  with  the 
pure  measure  of  Light  he  hath  given  to 
every  Man  to  profit  withal,  will  in  his  due 
time  let  you  see  whose  Servants  you  are, 
and  of  whom  you  have  taken  Counsel,  which 
I  desire  you  to  search  into :  But  all  his 
Counsel  hath  been  slighted,  and  you  would 
none  of  his  Reproofs.  Read  your  Portion, 
Prov.  1:24,  to  32.  For  verily  the  Night 
cometh  on  you  apace,  wherein  no  Man  can 
Work,  in  which  you  shall  assuredly  fall  to 
your  own  Master,  in  Obedience  to  the  Lord, 
whom  I  serve  with  my  Spirit,  and  pity  to 
your  Souls,  which  you  neither  know  nor 
pity:     I  can  do  no  less  than  once  more  to 


92  APPENDIX  n 

warn  you,  to  put  away  the  Evil  of  your 
Doings,  and  Kiss  the  Son,  the  Light  in  you, 
before  his  Wrath  be  kindled  in  you;  for 
where  it  is,  nothing  without  you  can  help 
or  deliver  you  out  of  his  Hand  at  all ;  and 
if  these  things  be  not  so,  then  say.  There 
hath  been  no  Prophet  from  the  Lord  sent 
amongst  you ;  though  we  be  nothing,  yet 
it  is  his  Pleasure,  by  Things  that  are  not, 
to  bring  to  nought  Things  that  are. 

"  When  I  heard  your  last  Order  read,  it 
was  a  disturbance  unto  me,  that  was  so  freely 
Offering  up  my  Life  to  him  that  gave  it 
me,  and  sent  me  hither  so  to  do,  which 
Obedience  being  his  own  Work,  he  glori- 
ously accompanied  with  his  Presence,  and 
Peace,  and  Love  in  me,  in  which  I  rested 
from  my  labour,  till  by  your  Order,  and  the 
People,  I  was  so  far  disturbed,  that  I  could 
not  retain  any  more  the  words  thereof, 
than  that  I  should  return  to  Prison,  and 
there  remain  Forty  and  Eight  Hours ;  to 
which    I    submitted,   finding    nothing    from 


APPENDIX   II  93 

the  Lord  to  the  contrary,  that  I  may  know 
what  his  Pleasure  and  Counsel  is  concern- 
ing me,  on  whom  I  wait  therefore,  for  he 
is  my  Life,  and  the  length  of  my  Days ; 
and  as  I  said  before,  I  came  at  his  Com- 
mand, and  go  at  his  Command. 

"Mary  Dyar." 

[Bishop's  New  England  judged  by  the  Spirit  of  the 
Lord,  311.] 


APPENDIX   III 

William  Dyers  j^etition  to  G-overnor  Endicott 
for  mercy  to  his  luife. 

"  Honor^  S' 

"  It  is  no  little  greif  of  mind,  and  sadness 
of  hart  that  I  am  necessitated  to  be  so 
bould  as  to  supplicate  yo'  Honor*^  self  w'^ 
the  Hon'''^  Assembly  of  yo'  Generall  Courte 
to  extend  yo'  mercy  &  favoure  once  agen 
to  me  &  my  children.  Little  did  I  dream 
that  ever  I  shuld  have  had  occasion  to  pe- 
titon  you  in  a  matter  of  this  nature,  but 
so  it  is  that  throu  the  devine  providence 
and  yo'  benignity  my  sonn  obtayned  so 
much  pitty  and  mercy  att  yo'  hands  as  to 

94 


APPENDIX  III  95 

enjoy  the  life  of  his  mother,  now  my  sup- 
plication to  yo'^  Hono"  is  to  begg  affec- 
tionately, the  life  of  my  deare  wife.  Tis 
true  I  have  not  seen  her  above  this  half 
yeare  &  therefore  cannot  tell  how  in  the 
frame  of  her  spiritt  she  was  moved  thus 
againe  to  runn  so  great  a  Hazard  to  her- 
self, and  perplexity  to  me  &  mine  &  all 
her  freinds  &  well  wishers :  so  itt  is  from 
Shelter  Hand  about  by  Pequid  Narragan- 
sett  &  to  the  Towne  of  Providence  she 
secrettly  &  speedyly  journyed,  &  as  se- 
crettly  from  thence  came  to  yo'  jurisdic- 
tion, unhappy  journy  may  I  say,  ^  woe 
to  that  generation  say  I  that  gives  occa- 
sion thus  of  greif  &  troble  (to  thos  that 
desire  to  be  quiett)  by  helping  one  an- 
other (as  I  may  say)  to  Hazard  their  lives 
for  I  know  not  whatt  end  or  to  what  pur- 
pose :  If  her  zeale  be  so  greatt  as  thus 
to  adventure,  oh  Lett  yo'  favoure  &  Pitty 
surmount  itt  &  save  her  life.  Lett  not 
yo""  forwonted  compassion  bee  conquered  by 


96  APPENDIX   TIT 

her  inconsiderate  madness,  &  how  greatly 
will  yo'  renowne  be  spread  if  by  so  con- 
quering you  become  victorious.  What  shall 
I  say  more.  I  know  you  are  all  sensible 
of  my  condition,  and  lett  the  reflect  bee, 
and  you  will  see  whatt  my  petiton  is  and 
what  will  give  me  ^  mine  peace,  oh 
Lett  mercies  wings  once  more  sore  above 
justice  ballance,  &  then  whilst  I  live 
shall  I  exalt  yo'  goodness  butt  other 
wayes  twill  be  a  languishing  sorrow,  yea 
so  great  that  I  shuld  gladly  suffer  the 
blow  att  once  much  rather:  I  shall  for- 
beare  to  troble  youre  Hon'  w*''  words  ney- 
ther  am  T  in  a  capacity  to  expatiat 
myself  att  present:  I  only  say  that  yo*" 
selves  have  been  &  are  or  may  bee  hus- 
bands to  wife  or  wives,  so  am  I,  yea  to 
one  most  dearely  beloved :  oh  do  not  de- 
prive me  of  her,  but  I  pray  give  her  me 
once  agen  &  I  shall  bee  so  much  obleiged 
for  ever,  that  I  shall  endeavo'  continually 
to    utter    my    thankes    &   render    yo'    Love 


APPENDIX   III  97 

&  Hon'"  most  renowned :   pitty  mee,  I  begg 
itt  w'*"  teares,  and  rest  yo"" 

"most  humbly  suppliant 

"W  Dyre 
"Portsrn^  27'^  of  3^  1660 

"Most  Hon"**  S'  Lett  these  lines  by  yo' 
favo""  bee  my  Petiton  to  yo""  Hon**^®  Gen- 
erall    Court:   at   present   Sitting 

"sd  W  D" 

[From  3Iass.  Archives,  X.  p.  266  (MSS.).] 

H 


APPENDIX   IV 

Duration    of  the  persecution   of  the   Quakers 
hy  the   Colony  of  Massachusetts. 

Besse,  in  Vol.  II.  p.  225,  gives  the  Royal 
Mandate  for  the  release  of  the  Quakers,  as 
follows:  — 

"Charles  R. 

''  Trusty  and  Welbeloved,  we  greet  you 
"well.  Having  been  informed  that  several 
"  of  our  Subjects  among  you,  called  Quakers^ 
"have  been  and  are  imprisoned  by  you, 
"  whereof  some  have  been  executed,  and 
"  others  (as  hath  been  represented  unto  us) 
"  are  in  Dang-er  to  underofo  the  Like :  We 
"  have  thought  fit  to  signify  our  Pleasure, 
"in  that  Behalf  for  the  future,  and  do 
"require,    that    if    there    be    any    of    those 

98 


APPENDIX   IV  99 

"People  called  Quakers  amongst  you,  now 
"already  condemned  to  suffer  Death,  or 
"other  Corporal  Punishment,  or  that  are 
"imprisoned,  or  obnoxious  to  the  like  Con- 
"demnation,  you  are  to  forbear  to  proceed 
"any  farther,  but  that  you  forthwith  send 
"  the  said  Persons  (whether  condemned  or 
"imprisoned)  over  to  this  our  Kingdom  of 
"  England^  together  with  their  respective 
"  Crimes  or  Offences  laid  to  their  charge, 
"to  the  End  such  Course  may  be  taken 
"with  them  here,  as  shall  be  agreeable  to 
"  our  Laws,  and  their  Demerits.  And  for 
"so  doing,  these  our  Letters  shall  be  your 
"sufficient  Warrant  and  Discharge.  Given 
"at  our  Court  at  Whitehall^  the  9'^  Day 
"of  September  1661,  in  the  thirteenth  Year 
"of  our  Reign. 

"  Subscribed,  To  our  Trusty  and  Welhe- 
"  loved  John  Endicot,  Esq :  and  to  all 
"  a7id  every  other  the  Governour  or  Gov- 
"  ernours  of  our  Plantation  of  New-Eng- 
"  land,   and  of  the   Colonies   thereunto   he- 


100  APPENDIX   IV 

"  longing^  that  now  are^  or  hereafter  shall 
"  he  :  And  to  all  and  every  the  Ministers 
"  and  Officers  of  our  said  Plantation  and 
"  Colonies  whatever^  ivithin  the  Continent 
"  of  New-England. 

"  By  His  Majesty's  Command. 

"WiL.  Morris." 

Upon  the  arrival  of  the  Royal  Mandate 
at  Boston  the  following  order  was  issued :  — 

u  2^0   William  Salter,  Keeper  of  the   Prison 
at  Boston. 

"  You  are  required,  by  Authority  and  Order 
"  of  the  General-Court,  forthwith  to  release 
"  and  discharge  the  Quakers^  who  at  pres- 
"  ent  are  in  your  Custody :  See  that  you 
"  dont  neglect  this. 

"  By  Order  of  the  Court. 

"  Edward  Rawson,  Secretary^ 

"Boston,  the  9th  of 
"  December,  1661." 


APPENDIX   IV  101 

Hallowell,  in  his  Quaker  Invasion  of 
Massachusetts^  p.  191,  says :  "  A  Quaker 
jubilation  followed  this  gaol  delivery,  but 
the  liberty  they  enjoyed  was  of  short  dura- 
tion. Fear  of  further  interference  from 
England  having  been  allayed,  the  law  of 
May  22,  1661,  with  slight  modification,  was 
reenacted.  This  was  done  on  the  8th  of 
October,  1662.  The  fires  of  persecution 
were  rekindled.  John  Endicott  pursued 
the  Friends  with  relentless  cruelty  until,  in 
March,  1665,  death  ended  his  wicked  and 
bloody  career. 

"  Bellingham  succeeded  Endicott,  but  was 
less  persistent,  and  instances  of  cruelty, 
under  his  administration,  are  not  numerous. 
His  clemency  was  due  in  part  to  the  in- 
terference of  royal  commissioners,  who,  on 
the  24th  of  May,  1665,  submitted  a  series 
of  demands  to  the  General  Court,  one  of 
which  was,  that  the  Quakers  should  be 
allowed  to  attend  to  their  secular  business 
without   molestation.      Bellingham   died    in 


102  APPENDIX  IV 

December,  1672.  In  November,  1675,  per- 
secution was  revived  by  the  passage  of  a 
law  prohibiting  Quaker  meetings,  and  in 
May,  1677,  it  was  further  provided,  that 
the  constables  should  '•  make  diligent  search ' 
for  such  meetings,  and  should  'break  open 
any  door  where  peaceable  entrance  is  denied 
them.'  For  a  brief  period  it  seemed  as  if 
the  scenes  of  1661  and  1662  were  to  be 
reenacted.  Men  and  women  were  seized, 
dragged  to  gaol,  imprisoned,  fed  on  bread 
and  water,  fined,  and  publicly  whipped.  In 
the  6th  month  (August)  fourteen  Quakers 
were  taken  at  one  meeting,  and  in  the  fol- 
lowing week  a  second  arrest  of  fifteen  was 
made.  Most,  if  not  all  of  them,  in  addition 
to  other  punishment,  suffered  flogging  at 
the  whipping  post.  These  are  the  latest 
cases  of  corporal  punishment  noted  by 
Besse.  The  Friends  rallied  in  increasing 
numbers  and  once  more  the  authorities 
were  forced  to  respect  their  rights." 


INDEX 


INDEX 


THE   FIGURES   REFER  TO   PAGES 


Acady 45 

Anglican  Church 13 

Antinomian  movement 32 

Arnold,  Benedict 78 

Atherton,  General 67 

Barnstable 65 

Baulston,  William     .     .     , 78 

Bellingham,  Governor 101 

Bennet,  Gervase 58 

Besse's  History  of  the  Friends   .     .      vi,  98,  102 
Bishop,  George,  New  England  Judged    .     . 

V,  7,  30,  55,  90,  93 
Boston,  2,  7,  8,  11,  12,  31,  33,  35,  36,  39,  40,  41, 
47,  50,  56,  57,  62,  63,  71,  74,  78,  84, 
90,  100 

Boston  Common 48,  49,  60,  62 

First  Church 3,  4 

Bowden's  History  of  the  Quakers  ....     vi 

105 


106  INDEX 

Bradstreet,  Simon 74 

Brend,  William,  Persecution  of  .     .     .     .     5,  27 

Brown  University 34 

Burden,  Ann 35 

Call  from  Death  to  Life vi 

Chace,  James  H 34 

Jonathan 34 

Chandler,  Peleg  W 49 

Charles    II.,   Mandate  of,    for    release    of 

Quakers 98 

Christmas,  Massachusetts  law  against     .     .  19 

Clarke,  John 35 

Walter 12 

Coddington,  William 3,  35 

Connecticut 44 

K-iver  Colonies,  Persecutions  by     .     .     .  2 

Settlement  of 14 

Croese,  Gerard,  Description  of  Mary  Dyer 

by 30 

Cromwell,  Oliver 22 

Dancing  at  weddings  forbidden 19 

Davis,  Nicholas 37,  39 

Denison,  Daniel 74 


INDEX  107 

Dryden,  Sir  Erasmus 12 

John 12 

Dyer,  Benjamin 34 

Charles  ....,....'.•■     34 

Elisha,  Sr 34 

Governor 34 

General 34 

Mary vi,  11,  12,  17 

Description  of 30 

Emigrates  to  Boston 31 

Joins  Bev.  Mr.  Wilson's  Church  .     .     31 

Letters  of 31,84,90, 

Joins  in  Antinoniian  movement    .     .     32 

Monstrosity  born  of 33 

Descendants  of 17,  34 

Visits  England 35 

Adopts  Quaker  belief 35 

Imprisoned  in  Boston 36 

Expelled  from  New  Haven  ....  36 
Banished  from  Massachusetts  .  .  38,  39 
Again  arrested  in  Boston      ....     39 

Trial  of      .     .     .    " 40 

Sentenced  to  death 44 

Carried  to  place  of  execution  ...  47 
Reprieved 51,  52 


108  INDEX 

Dyer,  Mary,  refuses  reprieve      .     .     .     .    53,  54 

Sent  to  Rhode  Island 55 

Visits  Long  Island 56 

Keturns  to  Boston 57 

Again  sentenced  to  death     ....     58 

Execution  of 60 

Entry  of  death  in  Friends'  Records 

of  Portsmouth 63 

Apologists  for  persecutors  of    ...     63 
A  martyr  for  Soul-Liberty    ....     67 
Letter  of  intercession  for  her,  by  hus- 
band of 94 

Mahershallalhashbaz 17 

William 30,  63 

Offices  held  by 31,  33 

Disarmed  in  Boston 32 

Forced  to  leave  Massachusetts ...     32 

Settles  in  Rhode  Island 33 

Descendants  of 17,  34 

Visits  England 35 

Intercedes  for  his  wife's  life     ...     59 

Letter  of  intercession  of 94 

William,  Jr 54 

Eaton,  Theophilus 74 


INDEX  109 

Endicott,  Governor  John,    8,  11,  40,  46,  57,  59, 

66,  82,  94,  99,  101 
Execution,  Puritan  method  of 48 

Feild,  William 78 

Fenner,  Arthur     <,     .     „ 78 

Ferriss,  W.  M 57 

Field,  see  Feild. 

Fox,  George 22,  58 

Friends,  Name  of      .     .     » 57 

See  Quakers. 

Gardner,  Horred,  Persecution  of     ...     .       7 
Gorton,  Samuel 21 

Hallowell's  Quaker  Invasion  of  Massachu- 
setts       22,  101 

Harvard  College 16 

Hazard's  State  Papers 74,  78 

Higginson,  Kev.  Francis 15 

Hildreth  quoted 21 

Holden,  see  Howldon. 

Holder,  Christopher 6,  12,  39 

Holland  , 14 

Hollis  Street  Church 49 

Howldon,  Eandall 78 


110  INDEX 

Hutchinson,  Anne     ....      9,  21,  30,  32,  33 

Captain 39 

Governor,  History  of  Massachusetts  .   38,  78 

4 

Immorality,  Puritan  rei)ression  of  ....     18 

Leddra,  William,  Execution  of 66 

Leete,  William 74 

London 12,  31,  37 

Long  Island 56 

Lutheran  Church 13 

Lyman,  Daniel  W 34 

Gymnasium 34 

IVIarbury,  Rev.  Francis 11,  12 

Mary,  Queen 63 

Mason,  John 74 

Massachusetts,  4,  12,  16,  21,  26,  30,  31,  32,  36, 
37,  38,  39,  40,  Tj^,  m,  67,  79,  98 

Archives 97 

General  Court,  3,  7,  12,  15,  19,  27,  45,  57, 
58, 59, 74, 83,  84,  90,  94,  97, 101 
Order  of,  for  release  of  Quakers  .     .     100 
Letter    to,   from    Rhode    Island    about 

Quakers 79 


INDEX  111 

Massachusetts,  Persecution  by 2 

Kecords vi 

Settlement  of  ....     • 14 

Union  of  Church  and  State  in   .     .     .     .  15 
Mather,  Cotton,  Account   of  Mary  Dyer's 

monstrosity 33 

Mereliquish 45 

Morris,  Wil 100 

Musconcus 45 

Narragansett 95 

New  England,  Religious  situation  in  .     .     .  12 

New  Haven  Colony 36 

Family  regulation  in 18 

Newport 7,  33,  63 

Norton,  Rev.  John 3 

Nova  Scotia      . 45 

Oakes,  President 16,  20 

Oliver,  Captain  James 46,  47 

Palfrey  on  Mary  Dyer's  monstrosity  ...     33 

Pequid 95 

Plymouth 14,  72 

Colony 37 


112  INDEX 

Plymouth  Colonyj  Persecution  by  ...     .      2 

Portsmouth 33,  63,  82,  97 

Prence,  Thomas 74 

Protestant  Eeformation 13 

Providence 9,  34,  37,  38,  78,  95 

Plantations  founded 20 

See  Rhode  Island. 

Puritan  intolerance 20 

Ministers'  persecutions 3 

Puritans,  Influence  of 15 

Laws  of 18,  19 

Religious  methods  of    .    .     16,  17,  18,  19,  20 

Removal  of,  to  Holland 14 

Rise  of 13 

Quaker  belief 22 

Fearlessness 29 

Persecutions,  Source  of 26 

Repression  of  Puritan  persecution      .     .     21 

Quakers,  Besse's  History  of vi 

Bowden's  History  of vi 

SewePs  History  of vi 

Derivation  of  name  of 57 

Puritan  persecution  of,  1,  2,  3,  4,  5,  36,  65, 

101, 102 


INDEX  113 

Quakers,  Puritan  persecution  of,  Duration 

of 66,98 

Royal  mandate  for  release  of     ....     98 

Rawson,  Edward 100 

Religious  situation  in  New  England    ...     12 

Rhode  Island,  1,  6,  7,  8,  9,  12,  30,  31,  33,  34,  35, 
36,  37,  38,  39,  40,  55,  56,  63,  64 
Answer  to  United  Colonies  as  to  Quak- 
ers, by 2,  75,  79 

Colonial  Records 74,  78,  82 

Founded 20 

Robinson,  William vi 

Imprisoned  in  Boston 37 

Banished  from  Massachusetts    .     .     .38,  39 

Again  arrested  in  Boston 39 

Trial  of 40 

Sentenced  to  death 42 

Execution  of 46 

Attempted  vindication  of  execution  of    .     56 

Romish  Church,  Religious  revolt  from    .     .     12 

St.  Georges 45 

Salter,  William 100 

Sanford,  John 82 

I 


114  INDEX 

Scott,  Catharine 9,  12,  37 

Hannah 12 

Mary 12 

Patience 11,  37,  38 

SewePs  History  of  the  Quakers vi 

Shelter  Island 95 

Snow's  History  of  Boston 62 

Stephenson,  Marmaduke vi 

Imprisoned  in  Boston 37 

Banished  from  Massachusetts    .     .     .38,  39 

Again  arrested  in  Boston 39 

Trial  of 40 

Sentenced  to  death 43 

Execution  of 4G 

Attempted  vindication  of  execution  of    .     56 

Taylcott,  John 74 

Temple,  Colonel  Thomas 45 

Tobacco,  Use  of,  forbidden 19 

United  Colonies 36,  83 

Letter    from,    to    Rhode    Island,    about 

Quakers     .     .     .  • 71 

Ehode  Island's  reply  to 75,  79 


INDEX  115 

Wanton,  Edward 62 

Webb,  Captain  John 60 

Weymouth 7 

Wheelwright,  Eev.  John 21,  32 

Whitehall 99 

Whiting's  Truth  and  Innocency  Defended  .       v 

Williams,  Eoger 20,21,35,67 

Wilson,  Rev.  John    .     .     .     4,31,46,49,50,61 
Winthrop,  Governor,  Description  of  Mary 

Dyer,  by 30 

Account  by,  of  Mary  Dyer's  monstrosity    33 
Of  Connecticut 44 

Yorkshire 37 


PUBLICATIONS 


OF 


PRESTON  &   ROUNDS, 


PROVIDENCE,  R.I. 


History  of  the  State   of    Rhode  Island 

and  Providence  Plantations, 

1 636- 1 790. 

By  SAMUEL    GREENE  ARNOLD. 

New  Edition.    2  vols.    Octavo.    574  and  600  pp.    $7.50,  net. 


Governor  Arnold's  History  of  Rhode  Island,  based  upon  a 
careful  study  of  documents  in  the  British  State  Paper  Office 
and  in  the  Rhode  Island  State  Archives,  supplemented  by  in- 
vestigations at  Paris  and  The  Hague,  has  from  its  publication 
been  the  authoritative  history  of  the  State. 

Genealogical  students  will  find  in  these  volumes  the  names  of 
over  fifteen  hundred  persons  prominent  in  Rhode  Island  affairs. 
This  work  is  of  much  more  than  local  interest,  as  the  experi- 
ment of  religious  liberty  here  tried  gives  to  this  history  an  im- 
portance far  beyond  the  narrow  limits  of  the  State. 


"  One  of  the  best  State  histories  ever  written  is  S.  G.  Arnold's  His- 
tory of  the  State  of  Rhode  Island  and  Providence  Plantations."  —  John 

FiSKE. 

"The  best  history  of  Rhode  Island  is  that  of  Arnold."  —  Prof. 
George  P.  Fisher,  Yale  University. 

"Mr.  Samuel  Greene  Arnold  in  his  history  of  Rhode  Island  has 
brought  together  all  the  extant  materials.  He  brings  out  more  clearly 
than  any  previous  writer  the  distinct  threads  of  the  previous  settle- 
ments." —  Prof.  John  A.  Doyle,  Oxford. 

"A  work  prepared  after  long  and  careful  research.  Probably  no 
student  has  ever  made  himself  more  familiar  with  the  history  of  Rhode 
Island  than  did  Arnold.  This  work  abounds,  therefore,  in  valuable  in- 
formation."—Pres.  Charles  Kendall  Adams,  Cornell  University. 


SENT  POSTPAID   BY  THE   PUBLISHERS. 

3 


Among  Rhode  Island  Wild 
Flowers* 

By  W.  WHITMAN   BAILEY, 

Professor  of  Botany,  Brown  University. 

Cloth.     i6mo.    Three  full-page  Illustrations.    75  cents,  net. 


This  admirable  little  volume,  the  outgrowth  of 
the  author's  ripe  experience  in  teaching  and  in 
botanizing,  contains  a  popular  and  interesting 
account  of  Rhode  Island  wild  flowers  as  distrib- 
uted throughout  the  State.  The  favorite  collecting 
grounds  are  fully  described,  thus  forming  a  botani- 
cal guide  to  Rhode  Island. 

In  writing  this  volume  Professor  Bailey  has  had 
in  mind  the  needs  of  the  nature  lover,  and  has  dis- 
carded technical  terms  as  far  as  possible,  adapting 
the  work  to  the  amateur  as  well  as  the  botanist. 

It  should  be  in  the  hands  of  every  lover  of  wood- 
land and  meadow. 

Forwarded  postpaid  to  any  address  upon  receipt 
of  price  by  the  publishers. 


Tax  Lists  of  the  Town  of  Providence 

During  the  Administration  of  Sir  Edmund  Andros 
and  his  Council, 

I 686- I 689. 

Compiled  by  EDWARD  FIELD,  A.B., 

Member  of  the  Rhode  Island  Historical  Society,  and  one  of  the 
Record  Commissioners  of  the  City  of  Providence. 

Cloth.    Octavo.    60  pp.    $1.00,  net. 


The  "  Tax  Lists  of  the  Town  of  Providence  "  is  a  compilation 
of  original  documents  relating  to  taxation  during  the  Adminis- 
tration of  Sir  Edmund  Andros  and  his  Council,  1686-1689.  It 
comprises  copies  of  warrants  issued  by  order  of  the  Council  for 
the  assessment  and  collection  of  taxes,  the  tax  lists  or  rate  bills 
prepared  pursuant  to  these  warrants,  the  returns  made  by  the 
townsmen  of  their  ratable  property,  and  the  Tax  Laws  enacted 
by  Andros  and  his  Council.  All  of  these,  with  the  exception 
of  the  laws,  are  here  printed  for  the  first  time. 

Among  the  rate  bills  is  the  list  of  polls  for  1688,  which  con- 
tains the  names  of  all  males  sixteen  years  of  age  and  upivards 
living  in  Providence  in  August  of  that  year  ;  practically  a  census 
of  the  town.  For  the  genealogist  and  historian  this  volume  con- 
tains material  of  the  greatest  value  on  account  of  the  great  num- 
ber of  names  which  these  lists  contain,  besides  showing  the 
amount  of  the  tax  assessment  in  each  case. 

The  returns  of  ratable  property  form  a  study  by  themselves, 
for  they  tell  in  the  quaint  language  of  the  colonists  what  they 
possess,  and  therefore  shed  much  light  on  the  condition  of  the 
times.  For  a  study  of  this  episode  in  New  England  Colonial 
History  this  work  is  invaluable. 

The  index  of  all  names  contained  in  the  lists  and  text  is  a 
feature  of  this  work. 

The  edition  is  limited  to  two  hundred  and  fifty  numbered 
copies. 

Sent  postpaid  to  any  address  on  receipt  of  one  dollar. 

5 


Early  Rhode  Island  Houses. 

An  Historical  and  Architectural  Study  by  Norman  M.  Isham,  Instruc- 
tor in  Architecture,  Brown  University,  and  Albert  F.  Brown, 
Architect.  Illustrated  with  a  map  and  over  fifty  full-page  plates. 
$3.50,  net. 

No  feature  in  the  study  of  the  early  life  of  New  England  is 
more  valuable  or  more  interesting  than  the  architecture.  Noth- 
ing throws  more  light  on  the  home  life  of  the  colonists  than 
the  knowledge  of  how  they  planned  and  built  their  dwellings. 

Early  Rhode  Island  Houses  gives  a  clear  and  accurate 
account  of  the  early  buildings  and  methods  of  construction, 
showing  the  historical  development  of  architecture  among  the 
Rhode  Island  colonists,  the  striking  individuality  in  the  work 
of  the  colony  and  the  wide  difference  between  the  buildings 
here  and  the  contemporary  dwelling  in  Massachusetts  and 
Connecticut. 

Those  interested  in  colonial  life  may  here  look  into  the  early 
homes  of  Rhode  Island  with  their  cavernous  fireplaces  and 
enormous  beams.  The  student  will  find  in  these  old  examples 
a  valuable  commentary  on  New  England  history,  while  the 
architect  will  discover  in  the  measurements  and  analyses  of 
construction  much  of  professional  interest. 

Among  the  houses  described  are  the  Smith  Garrison  House 
and  the  homesteads  of  the  families  of  Fenner,  Olney,  Field, 
Crawford,  Waterman,  Mowry,  Arnold,  Whipple,  and  Manton. 

A  chapter  is  devoted  to  the  early  houses  of  Newport,  which 
were  unlike  those  of  the  northern  part  of  the  State  and  resemble 
the  old  work  in  the  Hartford  colony. 

Photographs  and  measurements  of  the  dwellings  have  been 
made,  and  from  them  careful  plans,  sections,  and  restorations 
have  been  drawn ;  in  some  cases  six  full-page  plates  admirably 
drawn  and  interesting  in  themselves  have  been  devoted  to  a 
single  house.  Several  large  plates  give  illustrations  of  framing 
and  other  details.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  these  plates  are  made 
from  measured  drawings,  that  the  measurements  are  given  on 
the  plates,  and  that  these  constitute  in  most  if  not  all  cases  the 
only  exact  records  for  a  class  of  buildings  which  is  destined  to 
disappear  at  no  distant  day.  It  is  believed  that  these  drawings, 
and  especially  the  restorations,  will  give  a  clearer  idea  than  has 
ever  before  been  obtained  of  the  early  New  England  house.  A 
map  enables  the  reader  to  locate  without  difficulty  the  houses 
mentioned  in  the  text. 

The  authors  have  discussed  the  historical  relation  of  Rhode 
Island  work  to  contemporary  building  in  the  other  New  England 
colonies  and  in  the  mother  country.  The  book  is  a  mine  of 
authentic  information  on  this  subject. 

A  list  of  the  houses  in  the  State  built  before  1725,  so  far  as  they 
are  known,  with  dates  and  a  brief  description  will  be  found  in 
the  appendix. 

"  This  book  is  probably  the  most  valuable  historic  architectural 
treatise  that  has  as  yet  appeared  in  America." —  The  Nation- 


Revolutionary  Defences  in  Rhode  Island* 

An  Historical  Account  of  the  Forts  and  I]eacons  erected  during 
the  American  Revolution. 


By  EDWARD  FIELD,  A.B., 

Past  President  of  the  Rhode  Island  Society  of  the 
Sons  of  the  American  Revolution. 


NEARLY   READY. 


Rhode  IsIand^s  Adoption  of  the  Federal 
Constitution. 


A  Discourse  before  the  Rhode  Lsland  Historical  Society,  at  its 

Centennial  Celebration  of  Rhode  Island's  Adoption 

of  the  Federal  Constitution. 


By  HORATIO  ROGERS, 

President  of  the  Society. 

Paper.    44  pp.    8vo.    35  cents,  net. 

This  statement  of  the  reasons  whicli  impelled  the 
state  first  to  hesitate  with  anxious  deliberation,  and 
afterwards  freely  and  fully  to  abandon  its  independent 
character,  and  become  an  integral  part  of  an  indissolu- 
ble nation,  is  made  in  .such  form  that  it  should  be  the 
end  of  controversy,  and  the  future  student  of  history 
should  require  no  further  material  for  a  just  and  dis- 
criminating conclusion. 

7 


DATE  DUE 

JUN 

20  200 

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